Phanniemay 2018 Oneshots
by WastefulReverie
Summary: My entries for Phanniemay 2018. First year doing it, now finished! Rated T because I'm paranoid.
1. Electricity

Day One: Electricity

Genre: General

Words: 1358

* * *

It took him a while to realize that it was happening, and to tell the truth, he'd probably only noticed because of Tucker's exaggerated frustration that his fully charged PDA had died within minutes. At the time, he and Sam had pacified Tucker by suggesting that the battery was on the fritz and that it was due time to upgrade devices anyway. After all, it was just a simple PDA that definitely wasn't built to sustain being thrown into walls by Skulker's ectoblasts at least twice a week; it was going to break sooner or later.

But then, it started happening more places, and not just with Tucker's precious technology stash. One morning, when he left for school the charge on his phone had been around 90%, and proceeded to keep it in his backpack. Two hours later, when he took it out in Mr. Lancer's class, he realized that the battery had fallen to 18% without any use, which didn't make any sense. The phone _couldn't_ have a faulty battery, because he'd just bought it two weeks ago after Ember threw his last phone at some power lines. He mentioned it to Sam and Tucker after class, but Tucker mainly used it as an opportunity to turn the conversation back to _his_ PDA and how unfair it was for him.

Later, that same week, Mikey brought some prototypes into class to show off his entries for a regional robotics fair. To Danny's surprise, he let some of the students actually touch some of the robots, which was a risky move considering Dash's uncanny hobby of destroying things. Thankfully, Lancer was there, at the head of the classroom, glaring at everyone like a hawk, or more accurately, a _bald_ -eagle.

Danny listened as Mikey explained the different types of robots (and attempted not to cringe when Paulina asked if Mikey could make a talking replica of Danny Phantom's head), and turned his attention to a standing, wagging, animatronic dog. Captivated by the robot's movements, Danny reached out to touch the dog, and jumped back when it emitted a sudden beeping sound before collapsing in an unattractive heap of machinery. Instantly, Danny was stricken with glances from every one of his classmates.

"What'd you do to my dog?" Mikey furrowed his brow with accusation.

"Yeah, Fen _turd_ ," Dash smirked, "did you _break_ it? Even after Mr. Lancer said not to?"

"Nothing happened!" Danny attempted to explain, "All I did was touch it!"

"If all you did was just touch it," Mikey questioned, "then why did it execute the emergency power-kill sequence? It's only programmed to that when it has a dangerously low battery, which is impossible, because I rigged the battery to self charge using solar power! This means that I have to disassemble the entire thing and replace the battery, and the robotics fair is _tomorrow_! I'll never have time!"

"I swear, whatever happened, it wasn't me!" Danny said, pleading for belief. "Mr. Lancer, you saw me, right? I only touched it, nothing else."

"Mr. Fenton, I did not see anything, and from what Mr. Johnson here claims," he cocked his head towards Mikey, "it sounds like you sabotaged his robot dog."

From there, was a short series of arguments that lead to the inevitable fate of a week of after-school detention. And things kept going downhill from there.

After coming back from a routine fight (if you could call it that) with the Box Ghost, Danny accidentally grabbed Jazz's electric toothbrush by mistake before realizing his error and exchanging it for his own. The next morning she grumbled to herself about a broken toothbrush.

On other notable occasion, his Dad dragged him down to the lab to see the next invention on the endless list of things that will somehow inadvertently cause Danny more trouble than it's worth to keep his secret. Jack, with evident enthusiasm, directed Danny in front of his workshop counter in the lab, and wanted to show him how to solder wires together for a gun he was working on. It would've been nice, normal father-son bonding, if Danny wasn't helping his Dad complete a weapon that was most likely intended to hurt _him_ , but Danny took what he got. Well, it would've been a nice parental bonding moment if the soldering iron had actually _turned_ on. Jack examined it thoroughly and was left confused: there was nothing wrong with the tool itself, it seemed more like there was something wrong with the power cord. Failing to find a solution, Jack nearly cursed with disappointment and promised Danny that they'd be able to do it some other time.

The final straw was the lamp that resided next to Danny's bed. Lately, the light-bulb had been blowing out quite frequently, at least twice a week or more. After all the small, recent occurrences, Danny finally started to piece together that maybe it wasn't _just_ a coincidence.

When he reflected on all the evidence, he finally understood the big picture: every piece of technology or hardware around him, was instantly just _drained_ of all electrical energy.

It didn't take him long to leap to the correct conclusion, after all, in both ectology and fictional platforms, ghosts were notorious for interfering with electronics. But what confused Danny, was how he could be draining ambient electricity without his own knowledge. After all, he needed some form of mental awareness to activate his other powers, so it was puzzling why this ghostly side-effect occurred randomly, with not even a tie to his emotions.

Later that night, curiosity bested Danny, and he turned to someone he _knew_ would have a sufficient answer to his query, his Mom. He cornered her after dinner, when Jazz had retreated to her room to study, and when his Dad had lounged in front of the TV to hear a daily summary of ghost attacks.

"Hey, uh – Mom, I kinda have a sort of ghost question for you." Danny unconsciously rubbed the back of his neck, which Maddie immediately recognized as his habitual tell of anxiety.

"Sure, Sweetie," Maddie asked, trying to understand Danny's sudden nervousness, "what is it? Are any ghosts bothering you?"

"No – no, it's more of a scientific thing," Danny said, correcting his posture to seem more at ease. Then, he took the plunge. "Why do ghosts screw up electrical things, like light-bulbs and phones?"

Maddie narrowed her eyes, "And what compelled you to ask this?"

"Curiosity," Danny said immediately, before pausing. "Well, Sam, Tuck, and I were watching this movie with that kind of stuff, and we were wondering if the ghosts that come through the portal can do that."

"Well," Maddie nodded, finally understanding his intent, "it's something that almost all ghosts can do. As you know, all ghosts are made of energy, but they need something to fuel their existence, so they absorb energy around them. It's their equivalent of eating. For example, if a ghost is wounded or low on energy, they have to absorb more energy to restore themselves. Normally, ghosts just absorb ectoplasm, because it's their natural element and it's what the Ghost Zone is filled with. But here in the real world, there isn't any ectoplasm to absorb, so they have to use another form of energy. Logically, the easiest accessible substitute in today's world would be electricity. Of course, I have no doubt that ghosts can also absorb some forms of radiation and other alternate energy sources, but that's more complicated."

At the end of her explanation, Danny's eyes were wide with comprehension. "So if, a ghost got hurt frequently, that means he'd use up more energy around him?"

"' _It'_ , Danny. Not 'he', _'it'_ ," Maddie corrected, meticulously. "But yes, that's exactly how it works!"

"Okay," Danny shifted awkwardly, all of a sudden. "Well, thanks for answer. That explains a lot, now."

"Well," Maddie said warmly, "it humors me you even thought to ask. It's like you're not even interested in ghosts these days! I'm glad to know that on some level, you can be involved in our family's profession."

 _You have no idea how much_ , Danny thought, with an uncomfortable sense of irony.


	2. Green

Day Two: Green

Genre: Hurt/Comfort/Angst

Words: 1518

* * *

Maddie glanced back at Jack with a tense understanding, before furtively preparing her weapon and cautiously trekking down into the basement.

Her breath hitched in her throat. Only moments before, there had been sounds of ghosts disputing in their laboratory, but all noise had suddenly fallen silent. Local ghost fights were a common misdemeanor, but a battle in _her_ own basement? – that was a direct insult to the Fenton family. No protoplasmic scoundrels were going to go unpunished on her watch.

Jack followed close behind her, uncharacteristically light on his feet given the circumstances. He usually jumped at the chance to destroy ghosts, but something was different this time... The sounds of fighting they had heard earlier were... beyond savage. Whatever ghost had invaded their home was vicious, _bloodthirsty_. Not something to be taken lightly.

When Maddie reached the bottom step, she subconsciously strengthened her grip on the Fenton Bazooka, before surveying the state of the lab. The basement itself was lit by the dim light of the portal, the swirling abyss shining ripples across the walls, allowing just enough luminescence to see.

Maddie's gaze was brought to the center of the lab, where she found herself staring with shocked, wide eyes. Her mind twisted into a frenzy of failed comprehension and utter disgust as she absorbed the scene before her.

A green – goop, liquid? – pooled across the linoleum floor, churning unattractively and tainting the air with a bitter stench. It took her a moment to realize that this substance was _ectoplasm_ , her life's work. She'd never seen so much of it at once. What was even more horrendous was that the clotted viscosity of the otherworldly matter formed mounds that almost resembled severed limbs of something that had once been sentient. Maddie forced herself to watch as something leg shaped _sizzled_ and dissolved into the monstrous puddle.

The last thing that caught Maddie's attention, and probably the most _important_ , was a frail figure, sitting on it's knees and running it's fingers through the puddle like an excited child splashing in a kiddie pool. The figure, who's face was obscured from Maddie, was dripping in so much... _green_. It clumped in it's hair, in it's baggy clothes, and probably on it's face. And then, the figure brought it's hands to it's lips, and began to suck the dripping ectoplasm from it's fingers.

Maddie felt sick.

She hadn't realized she had taken a step forward until her boot came in contact with the puddle, splashing her HAZMAT suit with the same _green_ and creating a soft SPLOSH.

And in that moment, the figure looked up from it's stupor to meet Maddie's eyes with fear. And she was scared too.

An attack of indescribable horror, overwhelming revulsion, and maternal concern plowed into her at once, striking her directly above the heart. She froze in place, sensing Jack's similar reaction beside her. This had to be some sort of ghostly illusion, there was no logical explanation for her child, Danny, to... to...

This was what any parent would call, 'the unspeakable'.

"D – Danny?" her voice cracked, hoarsely. Everything was heavy, and Maddie was nauseous.

"Mom... Dad..." his eyes darted between them, afraid, yet still containing a trance-like semblance. "I-" He looked down at his hands, which were still dripping green. "I don't-"

"What _happened_ to you, Danno?" Jack asked softly. Maddie watched Danny cringe, as he forcefully squinted his eyes shut.

Danny inhaled and exhaled slowly, and continued to screw his eyes closed. When he spoke, it was in a bare whisper, causing Maddie to really concentrate on each syllable. "I... tried not to. I _really_... tried. I never..." his voice cracked, and Maddie observed tears falling across his cheek, "never wanted to... but I _did_." He opened his eyes, but didn't dare look at his parents, "I _still_ want to. And I need... to finish."

"Danny, I don't understand," Maddie pleaded slowly. "You're _scaring_ us, honey."

Danny finally looked up from the floor, and the look in his eyes sent chills up Maddie's spine. He clenched his fists, fighting the shudders going down his frame, "I don't want to scare you. You – you need to leave. Just – let me..." his voice became desperate, "let me... _feed_."

Like his soaked clothing and matted hair, Danny's eyes revealed an unmistakable, distinct, _green_.

At a glance, it would appear that he was overshadowed, but both parents knew that no ghost could impersonate Danny this well; his eyes (though green) were undoubtedly his own, free of spectral possession. And that's what confused them. If Danny was himself... how could he be doing whatever he was doing, and why was he exhibiting ghostly symptoms if he wasn't overshadowed? Was it even possible for humans to (Maddie tried not to throw up) develop an addiction to ectoplasm? Consumption of ectoplasm was severely toxic!

Maddie was torn from her thoughts when Danny dangerously lurched forward and gave a guttural groan. She found herself slowly inching backwards as her son betrayed his humanity to do the absolutely unthinkable. Maddie's mind was oddly blank as she witnessed Danny cup his hands with ectoplasm, and willingly drink it like a man dying of unquenchable thirst.

Sharp, pinpricks of nausea pecked at her insides, and there was a voice shrieking inside her head compelling her to _save her son, to make it stop, to do_ something. _This was wrong, vile, inhuman!_ But she was captivated by the horror in front of her, letting morbid curiosity best her, like a child unable to look away from the scene of a brutal car crash.

On the other hand, she was his mother, and she didn't do anything to intervene. _What was wrong with her?_ This could be killing him, and all she could do was _watch_! ( _watch as he licks and sucks and swallows the green from his fingers_ )

"Danny," she murmured numbly, " _please_ , stop..."

If he heard Maddie at all, he gave no indication. He continued to feast upon the contents of the floor, eating the corpse of a ghost. Maddie wanted to go to her son, to pull him away from the lab, demand answers, and order some kind of stomach pump, but a haunting feeling in her gut made her stop.

(Or maybe, it was the fear of her son himself that held her back.)

Danny continued to drink the ectoplasm from the remains of the slain ghost, seemingly forgetting that he was committing this taboo act in front of his parents, who were still staring at their son with a grisly magnetism.

After about a minute or two more of perverse indulgence, Danny ceased to drink any more ectoplasm. His mouth dripped with the otherworldly substance, and stained his skin green... ( _so much green so much green so much_ ) Danny, who had apparently regained his sobriety, shakily brought himself to his feet, and looked at his parents in mortal shame.

His voice was hollow when he spoke, "I never wanted you to see that." Maddie's heart sunk as she noticed he looked like he was about to weep.

"I... sometimes have to do things, that are really bad, if I want to live. I'm not really normal, and I haven't been for a while," he confessed.

Danny looked at Jack and Maddie expectantly, fear of rejection hanging heavy on his shoulders. He took an uneven breath and hesitantly continued. "I can explain everything, whenever you want – tonight, even. But now that you know how messed up I am..." he choked, "you have no reason to even see me as your son anymore, I'm just some freak of nature... aren't I? I don't want to... eat ectoplasm. It disgusts me, but whenever the hunger gets bad, I lose control."

He looked down at his pale hands, which were the only part of his body licked clean from ectoplasm. "Please don't hate me. Please don't kill me. I want to move _past_ this," he begged.

Danny closed his eyes, and began to cry. For a moment, Maddie imagined that his tears were green too.

"Mom? Dad?" he whispered through quiet cries.

Finally, something broke Maddie from her abject petrification. She glided forward, careful not to slip in what was left of the puddle, and stood inches away from Danny. She slowly wrapped her arms around him, ignoring all of the green stains, and soothingly rubbed circles on Danny's back. She was still repulsed by her son's gruesome actions and gross appearance, but understood that she couldn't let her disdain be evident. Danny was hurting, in more ways that one, and any failure to provide reassurance could permanently damage him, and even though she was disgusted, she still loved her son.

Even if, she could never look at him in the same way ever again.

"We'll get through this," Maddie breathed in his ear. "It won't be easy, and we can help whatever it is you're going through."

Danny wept more. "I – I love you, Mom."

Jack came forward, and joined the hug. He too, fought his internal revulsion.

"We love you too, Danny."


	3. DNA

Day Three: DNA

Genre: Humor/General

Words: 1871

* * *

It was a given rule that whenever Vlad started a new mayoral campaign, it typically didn't end well. This time, it wasn't exactly how Danny had expected it, and to tell the truth, the blame wasn't really on Vlad in the end.

This time, it was Mr. Falluca's fault.

Up in his pretentious office in City Hall, the pathetic fruit-loop decided to take a break from his usual villainous schemes and actually decided to do his job as Mayor, for once. What a rare occurrence! (It's not like he only got the job to be a dick to his nemesis or anything, who _ever_ said anything about _that_?)

So, Vlad Masters, overnight billionaire, CEO of DALV tech, and owner of various research laboratories throughout the midwest, granted Amity's local high-school with brand new, high-dollar, fancy science equipment. Of course, none of the students really cared (albeit, the science geeks didn't really count), so the teachers had to find ways to coax their pupils to appreciate the Mayor's generosity and their own privileges as part of the Amity Park community.

So what better way to force children to feel privileged than to deliberately flaunt expensive, paraphernalia that can only feed their spoiled arrogance?

"Thanks to the gracious donation of Mayor Masters," Mr. Falluca opened, with an unnatural air of zeal, "today our class will be visiting our recently renovated science lab to examine our new electron microscope! We're the only high-school in the state with access to one!"

Paulina scoffed, "What's so special about one silly microscope? You could probably buy five of my outfits with what Mr. Masters spent on that hunk of junk."

"That's where you're wrong, Ms. Sanchez. An electron microscope is a very professional piece of equipment; it can magnify something up to 2 million times it's original size! That's why it's the only microscope able to see the Watson-Crick double-helix!"

From the back of the classroom, something shifted. Sam, who was sitting with Danny and Tucker (one, who was perfectly dead asleep (pun not intended); and the other, who was salivating over getting to see such intimate technology), raised her hand impatiently.

Mr. Falluca broke from his enthusiasm and called on her, "Yes, Ms. Manson?"

"How does this relate to our current topic material? This week, we're supposed to be learning about photosynthesis and cellular respiration. We finished our unit on DNA last month. So, why is this relevant? You _never_ break your lesson plans," she rambled; trained, purple eyes narrowing in accusation.

"Well, clearly it's to check out the new micro-thingy, like he _said_ we were. Are you deaf Manson?" Dash chortled. "You sure dress like it! Geddit, 'deaf' and 'death': she dresses like death!"

Only the A-List laughed.

"I was pretty sure I made our lesson plan for the day clear, Ms. Manson," Mr. Falluca answered, ignoring the jabs of harassment.

"You mean we're only wasting our time on something we've already learned just so the school can show off it's shiny new prize?" Sam deadpanned. "I appreciate science, probably more than most people, but how does this help our education at all? The normal microscopes are efficient enough to cover our state standards. The only people who use this kind of microscope are Ivy League graduates! Science is important, but this is just a pageant of who has the most cash to waste. Not to mention, Mr. Master's grant could have gone to increase security in our school, replace broken desks and missing bathroom stalls, eliminate the mildew in the basement, improve the lunch menu-"

"Like we haven't heard _that one_ before," Dash rolled his eyes.

"This school has an abundance of problems that can be solved," Sam continued. "We're never going to accomplish them if all our money is wasted on ostentatious _toys_ that won't truly improve our education. This is what's wrong with the American school system!"

"That's enough Ms. Manson," Mr. Falluca glared. "It would be appreciated if you kept your criticism about the tools of our curriculum to yourself, after all, for science to improve, it must be available for the young to learn quickly so we don't fall behind in this fast-paced world. We're not living in the dark ages, despite... some preferences."

Sam rolled her eyes, "Yeah, yeah, say what you want. _I'm goth_ , I get it. I'm just saying that maybe the school is creating problems faster than they can resolve them."

This time, Mr. Falluca simply ignored the outspoken girl and continued with his lesson outline. "Alright class, since we're going to the science lab, you all need pencil and paper to take notes. We also need to be quiet in the hallways so we don't disturb any classes that might be s..."

And so the weary students stood from their desks and shuffled over to the door, absently chatting as they did so. Tucker leaned over and nudged Danny, who was still drooling all over his desk.

"Danny wake up, we're gonna examine zoomed-in DNA in the science lab."

Danny shot up immediately, shoulders tensed, before dejectedly slumping back down. "Wha...?" he slurred. "The famine consumed your PDA?"

Tucker sighed, "No dude, seriously wake up. Science lab, DNA and stuff."

This time Danny seemed to get the message and shook himself awake. "Oh, right, I'm still in school. Bummer."

"Bummer for all of us," Sam growled, still angry at Falluca. "I wish that stupid ass-hat would actually listen to me for once. None of the adults even listen to my opinions, and the student council just thinks I'm a joke!"

Danny looked at Tucker, "I miss something?"

Tucker lowered his voice, in attempt to not further enrage the glowering girl, "Nah, another debate about the deteriorating educational system blew up in her face, again."

Danny nodded in understanding.

When the class reached the lab, Falluca returned to flailing his arms around in a geekly excitement. "May I present to you, our latest addition and accolade to our school, the electron microscope!"

The class looked unimpressed at a bulky microscope that appeared three times taller than Falluca himself, which wasn't that tall considering how short he is.

"To demonstrate it," he began, "I need a DNA sample from a volunteer. So which one of you would like to have the class look at the code that determines your genetics!"

If Falluca was trying to persuade the class into showing any interest, it didn't work. He was met with twenty stares of awkward silence, leaving him to mercilessly pick a volunteer at random. And as Murphy had it, he _had_ to pick Danny.

"Since no one else is willing to participate, I suppose that I'll just have Mr. Fenton do it."

Dash snorted, "Who here wants to look at his _puny_ DNA. It'll take more than 2 million times of – uh, magnets to see... see the smallest parts of him!"

"Was that supposed to be a joke?" Tucker asked, unimpressed.

"Wait," Danny said, his sleep-deprived mind just processing Mr. Falluca's statement, "Why do _I_ have to do it?"

"Because... since nobody stepped up, I had to choose randomly, " Mr. Falluca explained. To tell the truth, he'd noticed the boy was sleeping earlier and figured this was a good way to force some awake participation. "All I need is one or two hairs, it's not a big deal."

"Well..." Danny thought, thinking of what could possibly show up in his DNA. He wasn't sure if being half-ghost was visible or not. On one hand, his DNA could be perfectly normal, but on the other, it could literally spell out the words 'I'm a ghost!'. It was a probably a good idea not to risk it. "I don't really feel comfortable with it. Can you use someone else's?"

"Really, Fenton, it's not really that personal, it's just hair, and I would like to use yours for the experiment."

Danny shifted awkwardly on his feet. It was going to be hard to evade Mr. Falluca, especially without having a valid reason to refuse. After all, hair wasn't a big deal and creating a scene over it would _not_ help things. "Still, I – I'd rather not," he protested again.

At his second refusal, Dash cockily raised an eyebrow, "Why are you afraid to give away your hair? Are you afraid someone will clone you or something?" he chortled in laughter, prompting the A-List to join. "Ah, I kill me. After all, who would want to clone you?"

"You'd be surprised," Danny muttered, accidentally commenting aloud.

"Huh?" Dash questioned, overall confused.

"You know what," Sam said, drawing attention to herself instead, "I'll volunteer. Use my hair for the DNA test."

"No," Mr. Falluca refused point-blank. "You've already made your view about this machine very clear, Ms. Manson, not to mention, I asked Mr. Fenton, so he'll be the one to do it."

Danny realized that he was slowly running out of options. He couldn't really say no to his teacher, and he definitely didn't want to get in trouble for something so trivial, because there was a likely chance his parents would get involved. That was something he definitely didn't need in the middle of all of this. Unfortunately, there wasn't going to be an easy way out of this, not including the unlikelihood of a spontaneous ghost attack. Therefore, he'd have to give in sooner or later.

So at that realization, Danny gave a deflated sigh and hesitantly plucked two or three strands of hair from his head and handed them to Mr. Falluca, who immediately prepared to put them on a slider. About two minutes later, the teacher had prepped the sample of hair and had adjusted the gigantic microscope to the appropriate settings. Eagerly, Falluca looked at the DNA sample, excited to be the first teacher in the school to test out the new 'toy', as Sam had put it.

The class watched, as Falluca's expression fell from one of enthusiasm to muddled puzzlement. He looked up from the microscope every few seconds as if to make sure everything around him was still real. "There must be something wrong with the filter on the lens..." he finally muttered.

Panic constricted in Danny's chest. He knew, didn't he? Christ, he should've known there was something obviously ghostly about his DNA. He basically just wrote down his secret and put in under a literal microscope for the world to see. He should've just taken a punishment instead, but of course he chose the wrong solution. His mind started to slip into anxiety: _this isn't good isn't good isn't good isn't_ –

"Sir," Mikey asked Falluca, "what's wrong?"

Mr. Falluca looked away from the microscope, and faced his students with a pondering look. "Everything's completely normal with the sample," he explained to the class. "It's just that... one half of the helix is emitting some kind of green luminescence. Like one stranded is coated in green, and the other is unaffected."

Danny laughed nervously, "Well this thing's never been used before, it's probably just a lens error, like you said."

As he said it, he doubted Mr. Falluca believed it either.

 _Damn it Vlad, why did you have to buy the school a fancy microscope in the first place?_

* * *

 **I uh, don't really think that electron microscopes work like that, but they are the only microscopes big enough to see DNA. But from my five minutes of research on them, I don't think they have to ability to see much detail, nonetheless color. But whatever. Who writes accurate science fiction in this fandom anyway?**


	4. Eclipse

Day Four: Eclipse

Genre: Angst/Horror

Words: 2701

* * *

Sunlight peered through the windows at FentonWorks, illuminating the inside of the odd house with temperate normalcy. Propping his elbows on the kitchen table, Danny placed down his spoon and faced his sister, opposite them. Their parents had already dismissed themselves to the basement for the day, or at least until lunch.

"So," Danny started, raising an eyebrow, "why aren't you coming to see the lunar eclipse with us, Jazz? What's the deal? I thought we already agreed we'd meet at the top of Amity Overlook tonight for the best view." He leaned back in his chair, "I mean, it's the not like it's the _coolest_ astronomical event this year!"

Jazz shrugged and took a bite of her cereal. "I don't know Danny..." she said. "I just feel like I've been overstepping my role as your sister with your friends. Ever since I found out your secret, it's been the four of us. Don't get me wrong, I like helping you guys and doing things, I just feel that it'd be better for all of us if I wasn't constantly involved. After all, they're your best friends, and I'm your big sister."

"Well," Danny said, "if you put it that way, it makes sense. But I don't really mind hanging out with you, and neither do Sam and Tucker. If we had a problem, we'd make it clear."

"Thanks Danny," Jazz smiled, "but you really do need time with Sam and Tuck alone. I'll probably just watch the eclipse from the roof of the Ops Center with Mom and Dad, like we did that one year. Remember?"

"Oh yeah..." Danny said, recalling the memory. "That was in like what, third grade? So long ago... I'd looked forward to it for weeks and when Mom almost didn't let us stay up late to see it, I was devastated, but then she changed her mind and we got to watch the whole thing."

Jazz smiled, "Wasn't that the time Dad brought the portable ectocooker and we made smores on the roof?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "I remember we were so paranoid they were gonna come to life again, but they didn't, fortunately. And then we all just stared up at the sky and watched the moon turn red."

"Yeah, I remember being mostly unimpressed, but you wouldn't stop talking about it for days, and how you hoped one day you'd see the eclipse from the moon instead..." Jazz trailed off.

"Yeah," Danny said, looking down at his hands. "Y'know, with my grades, I'll probably never get to be an astronaut. But, I'm still hopeful I can get to space on my own and just... lose myself in the stars for a little bit. It shouldn't be that hard; I've flown to space before, but only to fight Technus... but that doesn't mean I can't again."

Jazz soothingly put a hand on Danny's shoulder, "I'm glad, with everything that's happened, you're still able to follow your dreams, Danny."

"Me too."

* * *

In the hours leading up to the eclipse, Danny took the scarce opportunity to take a break from fighting ghosts; struggling through endless homework; and interacting with well-meaning, yet overbearing family and friends. His life (half-life, technically) just ran non-stop, one obstacle after the other, and to tell the truth, sometimes a guy just needed time to relax.

He spent the afternoon playing Doom on his computer. Normally he'd play multi-player with Sam and Tucker, but both of them were busy (Sam's parents were forcing her to learn French, and Tucker was grounded after he failed his chemistry exam). It was about seven o'clock before he finally turned off his computer and turned to go downstairs to see what there was for dinner. He stopped before he made it out of the door.

With his hand already clasped around the door-handle, Danny emitted a startled cry and nearly fell backwards in surprise.

The skin on his hand and arm was covered in burns. From what he could see, his skin was peppered with nasty red, brown, and black blisters, red discoloration, and slight bloating. The burns had to be at least second degree, possibly even third degree, yet they didn't feel painful at all, not even when he applied pressure on the wounds.

Danny started to panic, because these injuries had appeared seemingly from nowhere, and they didn't even hurt. What the _hell_ was going on?

He backed away from the door slowly, gluing his eyes to the burned flesh that wrapped around his arm. There had to be an explanation for this, whatever was happening. He turned to look at the mirror hanging above his dresser, and that was a mistake.

For one, the burns didn't just cover his arms. The gruesome marks of expired skin mottled his entire face and neck... disappearing beneath his shirt. The charring was even worse around his eye sockets, creating two parallel black ovals that accented his ghastly appearance. At this revelation, Danny let his jaw drop and watched as the blisters contorted and stretched along with the muscles in his face.

Heart throbbing with uncertain horror, he slowly reached down and pulled his shirt up, so he could see the condition of his chest. The skin was the same there too, except the pattern of the burning ran outwards from his heart, where there was a tangle of hardly decipherable scarring in the shape of tree branches.

Nearly instantaneously, Danny recognized those red scars clutching his heart as Lichtenberg figures, the signature mark of being struck by lightning. His mind struggled to make sense of that, because if those were Lichtenberg figures, and his body was burned to hell...

That didn't quite add up. After all, it wasn't like he had been electrocuted... or had he? He finally registered an almost plausible explanation.

If this was from the portal, could this... be the aftermath of the accident? It would make sense why his flesh was in unpleasant ribbons of blisters. But why would it be showing up now? Did this mean that his human half was finally dying? Were the consequences of being half-ghost finally catching up to him, leaving nothing but a rotting corpse for his family to discover?

No. No, he couldn't think that. This couldn't be his death. Not after everything he'd been through.

He couldn't just sit around and watch his body slowly deteriorate in the mirror he had to do something. So with an uncertain resolution, he decided to see what would happen to his crippled body once he turned into Phantom. Maybe the burns would transfer over to his ghost half, or maybe they would stay locked inside his human half. Danny tried not to focus too hard on what he was about to do, because he wasn't even sure that in his current state that if he transformed, that he would be able to return to human. But you don't find out until it happens right?

Whatever happened, Danny prayed it was curable.

So with a barely audible "going ghost", Danny watched in the mirror as the rings expanded over his form, changing his clothes not into a _black_ jumpsuit, but a _white_ one. With a strangled choke, he noticed that it hung on his body distinctly looser than it had the day of the accident, the last time he'd donned the white material before it was irreversibly altered. When the transformation rings reached the crown of his head, he noticed with confusion that his hair remained black, and while his eyes were glowing a dull green, they were slowly fading into blue.

It was his ghost. Not Phantom, but what the ghost of Danny Fenton should _really_ look like. He mulled that realization over before deciding that it wouldn't do him any good dwelling on it. Right now he needed to find out what was happening to him, and see if it was curable... before it was too late.

* * *

There was something different with the Ghost Zone. He didn't know if it was just him, or if was affecting the entire dimension, but whatever it was, Danny didn't like it. Every just felt... vacant, well, more so than usual.

Even though his ghost form appeared crippled and mimicked his human appearance rather than his normal ghostly persona, he was still able to retain all his powers perfectly. So with no preamble, Danny soared through the Ghost Zone, trying to remember the way to Clockwork's tower (his part of the Ghost Zone sometimes shifted, making it difficult to recall where he was) to hopefully find some answers. But still, after about twenty minutes of aimlessly flying around, he was at a loss. If Clockwork didn't want to be found, then damn him. He'd go to the Far Frozen instead; they always aided him there (even if they did praise him as some sort of ghostly pseudo-God, which always made him uncomfortable).

So Danny collected his bearings, and determined which way to fly to be on the path to the Far Frozen, when a chill traveled down his spine, signaling his ghost sense. Great, one of his enemies seeing him in this condition was _exactly_ what he needed right now.

He spun on instinct, searching for whoever triggered his sense, and soon enough, his eyes found the slowly approaching form of-

"Sidney Poindexter?" Danny asked, out loud. Poindexter flinched upon hearing his name, and without a ghost sense of his own, he was unable to predict the arrival of another specter, thus making his reaction more shaken than Danny's.

"Golly!" he cried, "Who are you, p-punk? Why aren't you in your lair, like everyone else?" He quickly reached a hand to his neck nervously, and held it there, securely. "I – I demand to know who you are," he threatened, timidly.

"I... it's _me_ , Poindexter," Danny said, explaining. "Phantom? _Danny_ Phantom. I don't know what's wrong with me, so I came here... for some answers."

"You mean, you're... and-" he gave a sigh of exasperation, "of course _you_ wouldn't know, halfa. Most of us here, we just know 'cause we have all the jets from instinct or something. But... I guess I'll clue you in, then you can skedaddle."

"Wait," Danny said, "so you know what's wrong with me? Is it why you said everyone else is in their lairs?"

"Precisely," Poindexter confirmed. "What's happening to you, and to all of us, is an effect of the eclipse. Whenever the sun and moon are hidden from the sky, the nature of our deaths are shown. I – I suppose you were... electrocuted," he gestured to the state of Danny's burned flesh, which had grown more charred and blackened over time. "And for me, it's-" he lowered his hand from his neck, revealing an angry red slice, contrasting with his monochrome image. The cut itself was no doubt slow and deliberate, and definitely... fatal. "-my throat."

"So," Danny said, trying to avoid gawking at Poindexter's neck (trying not to remember exactly _how_ Poindexter had reached his demise), "during every eclipse... we just, look like we did when we died?" he said the last word uncomfortably. "But then, we go back to normal, afterwards, right?"

"Yep, you got it, Clyde," Poindexter said. "Most everyone doesn't want anyone peeping on them, cause for most, death is personal. But I suppose, you already knew my story... mostly everyone does. It's why I'm too scared to go back to my place, because... I can't let the echoes of my classmates see me like this again," he confessed, gazing down at the swirling abyss below.

"Oh," Danny said, "I... get it. I wouldn't want anyone to see me like this, either. That's why I was so worried; I was afraid I'd have to face my friends like this, or that I'd be stuck forever."

"I dig what you mean," Poindexter nodded. "I suppose, if I didn't know either, I'd be pretty darn miffed."

Danny looked down at his grossly mutilated hands under his black gloves and muttered, "Yeah."

* * *

For the most part, Danny managed to hold himself together in front of Poindexter, but when he returned to the solitude of his room, he began to weep. It just... wasn't fair. He'd come to terms with being half-ghost a while ago, but this was just another painful... reminder that even though he was still partially alive, a part of him had died in that portal. He'd been fried to the core and burned to a crisp, and if it hadn't been for the ectoplasm that had bonded to his DNA... he would've looked like how he appeared now. Just a lot more _deader_. His two best friends would have had to drag his smoking, charred corpse out of the portal and present him to his horrified, sobbing parents.

What did he _ever_ do to deserve this? Why did he have to pay such a demanding price for one _very_ stupid, teenage mistake? Why did he have to... why did he have to face his own decaying face in the mirror?

But deep down, he knew the answer. He could blame this on some higher power, such as fate, but that didn't change the fact that he did this to _himself_.

His ghost half was a part of him now. And the price for his powers, the price for his extension of fate, was agonizing death. This is what he looked like when he was touched by the reaper. This is what he looked like beneath both Fenton and Phantom.

And he hated it so, _so_ much.

It had to be around midnight when he heard footsteps coming up the stairs. From the weight and rhythm of the steps, he automatically knew it was Jazz. Danny assumed she was just going to her room, probably to get a sweater or something; after all, it was cold on top of the Ops Center. He curled up in a ball on top of his comforter, too depressed to bother getting in the sheets. In his head, he was just counting the hours until his torment was stripped from him.

Then, without any warning, his bedroom door opened.

"Danny are you in here? Sam and Tucker said you bailed, and I was wondering..." she trailed off, when she saw the frail form of her brother, his back, facing her. She noted that something was wrong immediately. He was wearing his HAZMAT suit, his _original_ one. The same suit that was destroyed in the accident...

"Go away, Jazz," he said hoarsely, voice cracking as if he'd been crying. "I don't look... okay right now. You shouldn't see me."

"What are you talking about?" Jazz inquired, cautiously. "Why are you wearing-"

" _Leave_ ," he rasped, with more force. "Please. I'm okay. Just _get out_ of my room."

That's when she knew something was _really_ wrong. Disobeying his pleads, Jazz rushed forward and found herself looking at her brother's face, and fell backwards with a sudden shriek of surprise. The burns were so black on his skin it was hard to distinguish any of his defining features. Though, she could see streaks of tears trailing down his cheeks, and his miserable expression.

A look of concern and alarm possessed Jazz. "Danny, wha-"

"It's temporary," he cut her off. "The eclipse... makes ghosts look like they did when they died. It doesn't hurt. And, I – I-" he choked, unable to manage any more words. He reached out to grab Jazz's hand, like it was the only tangible thing in the world.

His voice came out in a whisper, "I never realized that what it did to me, was ever this bad."

Jazz continued to stare at her brother's mutilated, electrocuted body, and tentatively wrapped her arms around his shoulder. She seemed collectively uneasy, but who in their right mind would be comfortable with hugging the splitting image of their brother's corpse? Eventually, she began to tremble, and it took Danny a moment to realize that she was crying as well...

In the minutes they spent clinging to each other, under the darkness of the blood-red moon, they lingered in silence. She didn't have to say anything; her sympathetic embrace spoke more than anything she could've said.


	5. 10 Years Later

Day Five: 10 Years Later

Genre: Family

Words: 2989

* * *

"I don't get it," Valerie said, opposite of Danny. "You could've taken off work today, but you didn't. _Why_?"

Danny, who was momentarily immersed in his calculations, gave a fleeting 'in a moment' expression, before gingerly setting his tablet at the edge of the laboratory counter. He returned Valerie's inquiring gaze with an amiable shrug, provoking her curiosity further. Fortunately for Valerie, he was sitting down, that way she didn't have to look up at him to make eye contact. Taking after his father, Danny had finally peaked in Senior year, growing to 6'1" and surpassing the height of almost all of his friends. It infuriated Valerie to her core, because it just wasn't fair that after all these years _scrawny, little Danny Fenton_ could be taller than her. Damn those Fenton genetics. (Though, she admits she tried to convince herself that being _Phantom_ probably had something to do with his growth spurt too.)

Although, his height was outwardly the most noticeable change about Danny over the years, it wasn't exactly the most significant. Not long after the asteroid incident, she noticed he started to grow more confident, probably due to the fact that he was reassured with his parents' acceptance of his other half. Even though he kept his secret contained in Antarctica, coming clean seemed to complete improve his overall mentality, which not only helped him fight ghosts better, but also gave him the energy to approach situations at school more realistically. And even though most people at Casper High didn't witness Danny's spontaneous reveal, those who knew his secret (such as Kwan, and herself) helped exponentially.

Of course, the most prominent change within Danny was the latest adoption of a more paternal role. Three years ago, after constantly worrying about the consequences of Sam's pregnancy with their firstborn, James, he'd been majorly overprotective of his wife and half-ghost son. (And soon, with his daughter, who was yet to be born in another month.) But with the expected defensiveness of his family, came the onslaught of horrible dad jokes. Personally, Valerie blamed Danielle; after she suggested the nickname "Daddy Phantom", Danny hadn't stopped saying it... for _three_ years.

Sometimes, Valerie wished her punny, cloned girlfriend wasn't so much like her original. Their shared sense of humor was literally going to kill her.

Danny leaned loosely against his chair and answered her impetuous question. "I don't really see any reason to miss work today. After all, I'm sort of over ceremonies; they're nice and all, it's just... they're unnecessary after a while."

Valerie gaped, "You're kidding, right? 'Unnecessary?' Danny, it's the _tenth_ anniversary of the Disasteroid! You saved the world ten years ago, today."

"You think I don't remember?" he asked. "I mean it's not like we were both _there_ -"

"Oh, don't get smart with me," Valerie rolled her eyes. "You know they're holding the Phantom appreciation festival today. Seriously, it's your _own_ holiday, and you're not going to even show up? What the hell, Danny?"

"I've skipped it the past two years, Val," he argued. "Why is it different now?"

"Ten years is a _big deal._ You actually can't expect me to believe that you don't feel... amazed by it? You're going to act like you didn't save all of existence when you were sixteen and pretend like it's just another Thursday? You could leave work right now and all you'd have to say is "Disasteroid-versary" and Mr. Bianchi wouldn't even _care,_ because everyone remembers what Phantom did. What _you_ did."

Danny rolled his eyes, "And then what? Go ghost, arrive at the festival, and let everyone adore me? Or should I just silently watch as Danny Fenton?"

Valerie glared at him, "You're killing me."

"I have work to do, anyway. Your Dad didn't help hook me up with this job just so I could be Phantom all day. I got this for a paycheck, so I can actually further research in using ectoplasmic energy alternatives and 'assist' the Red Huntress."

About four years ago, after Danny had obtained a degree in physics, he had a _lot_ of trouble trying to hold down a job. After all, it's hard to get any work done when you have to constantly leave to fight ghosts, also while maintaining a secret identity.

Meanwhile, in the time since Vlad was exiled into space (or, wherever he went after that), the employment within Axion Labs was completely restructured. And after a few wise decisions, Damon Gray managed to snag a high enough position to hire who he wanted. Which is how Valerie started working at Axion Labs as the Red Huntress, capturing ghosts for non-invasive experiments and allowing the technology of her suit (which had bonded to her body) to be studied and replicated.

So, after hearing about his career struggles, Damon offered Danny a job at Axion Labs specializing in studying how ectoplasm and otherworldly substances can be repurposed as fuel and how they pertain to the environment. However, the unofficial part of the job agreement was that Danny would pose as the Red Huntress's technician. Whenever there was a ghost attack, Danny's co-workers were told that he had to leave to monitor Valerie and remotely act as her 'ground-control'. Of course, that was all an alibi; he'd really just transform in a secluded area and deal with the ghosts as Phantom. Occasionally, someone would slip-up, and an Axion employee would discover Danny's secret. It had only happened twice, to date, but Damon would take control of the situation and would compose a confidentiality contract.

"This job is supposed to allow you to freely fulfill your duty as Amity's hero, _while_ working. I think this counts," Valerie debated.

"Unless another ghost shows up," Danny started, "I'm _not_ leaving this lab."

Six minutes and thirty-seven seconds later, Danny tensed as a chill taunted his spine, spitting out the usual blue mist that tickled his throat. It was followed by the sound of Valerie's own ghost sensors activating, signaling the presence of a hostile specter somewhere close.

Valerie smiled, "Let's get to work now, shall we?"

* * *

It didn't take them long to find the opposing ghost. After all, flair was her specialty, and even though it was 'Disasteroid Day', ghosts didn't really find any sentiment in holidays besides Christmas, so Ember had no guilt about crashing the festival. _Or_ setting it on fire with her guitar.

When Ember set eyes on Phantom, Valerie close behind him, she ceased her arson spree and grinned wickedly. "Took you long enough, Phantom. I didn't know how many more of those balloons with your face on them that I'd have to blow up before you arrived."

Danny groaned, seeing that this was one of those dead-end 'negotiation fights' and decided to jump straight to the point. "What do you want this time, Ember?"

Strumming a short C chord on her guitar, she brushed her fiery hair to the side of her face and narrowed her eyes, "Your next kid is a girl, right?"

Danny, caught off-guard, froze. "Are you threatening my daughter?"

"Huh?" Ember asked, "No. Of course not. Sure, I have it out for you and your family, but little kids are always out of the question when it comes to fighting, Dipstick. I have _some_ principles, geez."

"Then what-"

"I was going to tell you that you're going to name your daughter after _me_ ," Ember boldly declared.

Behind him, Valerie audibly snorted.

Danny sputtered uncomprehensively for a moment before mustering a sensible response,"Um... how about a no? After all, Sam and I have already agreed that we're calling her Lilith Elise Fenton, and that's _final_. And then there's the fact that you're literally my enemy, so I have no reason to name her after you."

"Do you think I _care_? That child, will be named after me! It will ensure _everyone_ will know my name. Yes, it will be her name, but it will also be mine. And once word gets around the Zone that Phantom named his child after me, I'll be more famous than ever!"

"Well, too bad, because there's no way in Hell I'm ever affiliating my daughter with _you_ , Ember!" Danny said, charging up an ectoblast in his palm, signaling Valerie that it was time to actually begin the fight.

Since it was two against one, it didn't take them very long to detain Ember, who kept insisting that if Danny didn't comply with her demands, she'd make Skulker hunt both of his children the day they turned twelve. It wasn't the first time he'd heard that threat, though. Many of the ghosts followed the unspoken rule that it wasn't morally right to fight children, but once they were old enough to properly defend themselves, they were 'fair game' to attack. It terrified Danny that when James finally turned twelve years old, a majority of his enemies would target his son as well; it was a burden that neither of his children should have to suffer.

Neither of them had asked to be born into the ghost world, tangled with having to hide their dual nature from human society. It also wasn't fair that they would have to fight for their lives by the time they were in middle school. With the many benefits of being half-ghost, there were obvious downsides of being Danny Phantom's child.

Attempting to push some of the more depressing concerns out of his mind, Danny focused on aiming the upgraded Fenton thermos at Ember so he could flee the battle-scene before he got trapped at the Phantom festival against his will. As soon as Ember's form was seized by the beam of light and pulled into containment, Danny looked towards Valerie, who was hovering idly in the air, inattentively holding a hand to her ear. For a moment he wondered if she had a head injury, before realizing she was listening to something and using her hand to block the noise of the wind. He assumed that during their fight, somebody must have called her via the Fenton Phones, which he had inconveniently left back at Axion Labs. From what he could see of her expression below her visor, it was something urgent.

From where he floated, he saw her mutter a few words, absently nod, and presumably conclude the call. She glanced back at him and said in a staid tone, "Tucker just called. He said that we need to get over to your place as fast as possible."

Panic clutched Danny, daring to pull him out of the air for a moment. His first thought was that Sam was going into labor, after all, her due date was in two weeks. However, Valerie had said they needed to go to his house, not the hospital. So that at least meant that she wasn't going to give birth soon... unless they needed him to fly her to the hospital _because_ she was in labor. Adrenaline surged through his veins, forcing him to attempt to determine the severity of the moment.

But with the current evidence, there was simply no way to tell what situation awaited him. So with no further preamble, Danny shot into the air faster than Valerie could steady her jet-sled.

* * *

He phased through the wall of the first floor of their house, wildly trying to locate the predicament. And thankfully, it wasn't what he had expected.

Sam was sitting on the couch with James next to her, anticipation etched on her face rather than any indication of pain. Standing across from her, was Tucker, wearing a bulky camera around his neck. James, in the center of it all, was the most odd picture in the room. He was snuggling in his mother's arms, eyes steadily focused on the floor, with a cross of nervousness and excitement on his face. He shivered as if someone was breathing down his neck and continued to cling to Sam. And most weirdly, he was wearing the white HAZMAT suit that his grandpa Jack had made him for Christmas (even though Danny insisted that he didn't need it). Danny had only seen him wear it a handful of times, but it was usually only when Jack was around or when the boy decided to play superhero like his Dad.

"What's going on?" Danny asked, letting himself land on the carpet.

James looked up from where he was burning holes in the floor with his eyes (not literally, but he would eventually possess the ability). "Daddy, you're here!" he said, cheerfully. "Mommy and Uncle Tuck said that I – I'm gonna be able to look like you."

Danny raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean? You already look like me, Jamie. You're my son."

"Yeah and no," James said. He pointed the logo on Danny's chest. " _Phantom_ , you."

Overall confused about the context, Danny tried to interpret James's words. What they had found out about born half-ghosts were that they developed their powers very slowly, and that it would take years for them to be able to achieve the level Danny started at as a ghost. That way, easing into powers was more subtle and less rigid. So far James had only exhibited invisibility and intangibility, and had yet to access a ghost form. Though... from the way had James phrased it, it sounded like he was suggesting that he thought he was close to transforming...

Sam, who had noticed Danny's thoughtful gaze, elaborated to cease his confusion. "Remember how your parents said it would take his core a while to mature enough for him to transform? I know they said he'd be around five or six, but apparently, their estimations were wrong. He's been showing obvious signs for the past twenty minutes. Also, we put him in the HAZMAT suit because we're guess his ghost half will keep what he's wearing."

"Obvious signs?" Danny asked, completely flabbergasted. He hadn't actually expected the progressive rate of James's core maturity. "Like what?"

At that moment, James whimpered in Sam's arms, clutching his own sides and shuddering. A small burst of white light emitted from his waist and slowly circulated a halo around his body before fizzling out to nothing.

"Namely, that," Tucker chimed in.

"Well, I see that _now_ ," Danny deadpanned.

"Why it so cold, Daddy?" James asked innocently, still quivering.

Danny's expression softened, and he went to join Sam on the couch so he could support James. "It's your core," Danny answered, gently. "Your core is like mine, an ice core. It makes cold energy. But since your body is also human, and humans are very warm, it will make you cold when you try to use it. But you'll get used to it, and learn to forget about it. It's like when you go tingly when you're intangible."

"Makes sense," James nodded. "But I don't wanna be cold."

"I know..." Danny said, "but you can do this, James."

"But I've not done this before," he said, worriedly. Once again, a bring ring circled around James, before fading away in the same interval of time.

"But, you're doing great," Danny reassured. He paused a moment before asserting a question, "So are you trying to change yourself, or is your body doing this on it's own?"

"It's just... happening," James explained.

"What do you... what do you think would happen if _you_ tried to change?" Danny asked.

James was silent. "How – how would I do that?"

"I can talk you through it, if you'd like," Danny said. "After you do it for the first time, you gain more control over it and it gets easier."

James nodded, "I can try."

"Alright," Danny said. "I want you to focus on inside of you, where your energy feels the coldest. The deepest part of your core."

"Just think about it?"

"Think about how it feels. Think about how it feels more sensitive than the rest of you."

"Okay," the boy proclaimed, squinting his eyes shut, tightly.

"Alright," Danny resumed, "once you think about all of that, pretend the cold gets bigger and fills up all your body. It might feel uncomfortable, but then after you change, the weird feeling goes away."

It took James multiple tries before he could actually get the rings to go further than his kneecaps and shoulders, but after fifteen more minutes, he finally succeeded.

"You can do it, James," Sam told her son, proudly. "We all believe in you!"

"Yeah James," Tucker cheered, "go ghost like your Dad."

James was still perched on the couch and squeezing both of his parents' hands in a death grip. Then, he opened his eyes and they lit up with the recognition of an idea. Before, he'd put all his focus into his inner power source, closing out the world around him. But...

James let go of his parents' hands and stated with fierce determination that was unnerving within a three year old, "Going ghost."

This time the two rings formed smoothly, gliding across the toddler's body, changing his white HAZMAT suit to black, his black hair to white, and his mother's purple eyes to a vibrant green. You could hear a pin-drop as everyone examined James's new form with an admiration for his similarities to his father. James himself stared down at his now white glove and pulled at a strand of white hair and gasped.

Tucker was the first to break the silence among them. "He really _does_ take after you, Danny. He's already mastered your stupid battle-cry."

Sam looked at her now ghostly son, with a new-found sense of pride, "I'm so proud of you James..."

Danny smiled, "So I am, son." He laughed, "This date must be marked for miracles. Ten years ago today, we saved the world... and now, today, my son is able to transform between his two halves. Our kid, James _Phantom_. How about that?"

Danny didn't need praise for saving the world anymore. He had everything he needed right here.


	6. A Home for His Soul

Day Six/Seven: World Building/Core

Genre: Supernatural

Words: 1415

* * *

It was truly an odd sensation. Danny had no clue how he gotten where he was at the moment, yet, he knew his exact dimension-graphical location and could _feel_ how this one place harmonized with the natural energy of the Ghost Zone. In the back of his mind, he discovered he could tap into the energy ingrained in the fabric of the ghostly plane, using this location as his anchor. To tell the truth, Danny didn't even know how he was doing it; it was just something naturally instinctual to his ghost half.

It was just as Clockwork had described it, just eerily more vivid and awesome.

He glanced around at the expansive world around him, satisfied with the anomalous beauty the area the Ghost Zone offered. In most places within the Ghost Zone, the vast space was occupied with clusters of lairs, but this sector was strangely isolated. Multiple flowing swirls of ectoplasm blended together to create an aesthetic ambiance akin to a winter sunset. The shades of green varied from dark tones of jade to bright hues of oozing, neon lime, creating a luminescent kaleidoscope that radiated green shadows onto every physical surface. The mirage of the ectoplasm contrasted with the pure darkness of vacant space, ebbing against each other like a three dimensional watercolor painting.

His core had lured him here, to the place where he himself felt most connected to the Ghost Zone. He'd never been here before, but just from the few minutes he spent reveling in the feeling of comfort it brought him, he knew it was the place. The place where he would build his lair.

At this point, he'd been half-ghost for about two years, and hadn't put any thought of his own residence within the ghost world. Though, Clockwork (all-seeing mentor/occasional jerkwad) had informed him that it was beneficial to all ghosts to have their own lair, including him. Danny was adamant at first, but eventually gave into Clockwork's insistence. After all, he supposed it would be somewhat helpful to have a place he could go to in the Ghost Zone that was his own territory, not to mention, a ghost's lair also helped increase healing capabilities.

Clockwork gave him lots of advice about how to find where his lair should be (which meant aimlessly flying until his core pulled him to a random place), how to actually create his lair, how to manage it, and how to convert energy from it to regain strength.

So, now that he'd found the place, he could begin building. Easily, the most difficult task in the process; if he screwed up, it would take a _lot_ of energy to renovate as opposed to construction. Clockwork had made that fact _very_ clear, so that indicated that in some alternate timeline, he had the potential of messing up his lair. Danny knew Clockwork well enough that he didn't truly stress something unless there was a probable chance that it could occur.

"Alright, Fenton," he muttered to himself. "You can do this. Just keep a blank mind. It shouldn't be too hard, just imagine Lancer's reading Hamlet."

Danny cleared his mind, trying his best to avoid any lingering thoughts. He had to _really_ concentrate on not letting anything interfere. Rather than thinking with his brain, he had to surrender control to his core to allow himself to utilize the complex network of ecto-energy.

As his conscious thoughts mellowed away, Danny became aware of more fervent sensations within him as he explored the border between his core and the fabric of this reality. His new sixth sense grew, causing his external senses to fade into a numb awareness; color dissolved, sound vanished, and the coolness of the air receded... Yet, everything within him felt deep and bright. He could feel the edge of the Ghost Zone's raw, infinite power, and wanted to delve further into it and search every other core connected to this plane. Though, he knew he couldn't; doing so would destroy him, it'd literally _consume_ him in more ways than one. He had to trust his core to shape the necessary energy into what he wished to create, he had to contain himself to his own limitations whilst becoming one with the Ghost Zone.

As he began the process of building, he felt his core stretch and constrict and send a range of different pleasing and uncomfortable sensations through his nervous system. The energy also probed his soul, seeming to ask ' _who_ are you?' as it decided how it was going to fulfill the creation of Danny's lair. As this process occurred, he watched in placid fascination as wisps of incorporeal ectoplasm poured from his body and joined with the surrounding ectoplasm in the air to create a vague shape of a door.

His core allowed him to effortlessly envision the inside of his lair, allowing him to conceive and fashion his territory specifically to his own desires. Thus, Danny easily manipulated the ectoplasm into any texture, size, and color, molding a perfect replica of his dream residence.

Overall, his lair just looked like an alternative version of his own bedroom, but with a few embellishments. Given that it was in the Ghost Zone, the color palette was much more vibrant than neutral: his walls were painted a neon green that reminisced the ectoplasm in his eyes; bright silver curtains covered where the windows would normally be; and light just seemed to fill the empty space, with no visible origin. And then there were small things that he unconsciously added that seemed to complete his reimagined dwelling.

Instead of his bland bedspread, there was the galaxy patterned comforter that he never got for Christmas. Pictures that he recognized from Jazz's scrapbook and Tucker's PDA archive adorned the walls, keeping him close to those he loved. The space shuttle model that Skulker had so unfortunately destroyed floated below the ceiling, appearing as if it was truly flying through zero-gravity. There was a replica of Sam's signed Dumpty Humpty poster (that he'd always been jealous of) was framed above his bed. Next to the door that lead to his new high-end bathroom (he'd never liked the FentonWorks bathrooms, to be honest), was a glossy, black shelf full of medical supplies and extra clothes suitable for both of his forms. In a corner on the opposite side of his room was a pantry full of snacks with a microwave, which was more for enjoyment than sustenance because he could easily harvest residual ectoplasm as pure energy. But the most remarkable aspect about his lair was the ceiling; there was no clear physical roof, but instead the top of his lair evanesced into an ethereal expanse of the night sky, peppered with breathtaking constellations and the colors of various galaxies.

Through the entire procedure, Danny managed to keep an empty mind, completely devoid of persistent thinking. As he completed the progression of his lair, Danny's grasp on the Ghost Zone's power fled from him, restoring his normal senses to regular capacity and finalizing the formation of his lair. When it happened, it was like he was waking up from a pleasantly distant dream, causing a momentary lapse of disorientation. Actually thinking with his brain felt heavy and dull as opposed to perceiving the world through his core, which observed the world through frequencies of power and emotion.

Shaking his head a few times to snap him out of his stupor, Danny found himself facing the purple door to the lair he had just created. It looked like every other door in the Ghost Zone, but to Danny, everything in him just _knew_ it was his. If he looked closely, it was as if he could see his own symbol ingrained within the wood of the door, but he knew it was only a mirage.

With no hesitation, Danny flew forward and passed through the entrance to his lair. Upon being physically present within his lair for the first time, Danny suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of ease and comfort. It was even more surreally captivating in real life, and for once, Danny felt content with belonging within the Ghost Zone. He let out a tense sigh he felt like he'd been holding for a long time, and fell backwards on his bed, losing himself in the enchanting infinity of the galaxy below his ceiling.

At that moment Danny knew that he'd always have FentonWorks, but this place of personal serenity was his soul's home.


	7. Clones

Day Eight: Clones

Genre: Suspense

Words: 3678

* * *

Running with a camera around his neck was a pain. The weight pulled at the back of his head, and the camera bumped into his chest every time he took a step forward. It wasn't exactly ideal, but given the current circumstances, he didn't exactly have a choice.

Often when he snuck out of class to observe a ghost fight, the ghosts only targeted Danny. From there, Wes would watch from the bushes, completely safe and sound and _not_ in the line of fire. However, today – for some _Godforsaken reason_ – was different.

And Wes didn't like it.

It had started out as a normal day, really. He would focus most of his attention on his schoolwork, while keeping a keen eye on Danny Fenton when he wasn't looking. Over time, Wes had learned to recognize the blue mist that Danny exhaled as a sign of an impending attack, so he always made sure to observe him. After all, Danny wasn't exactly subtle, per se...

Honestly, it wasn't _that_ hard to figure out that 'weak' Danny Fenton, who looked _exactly_ like Danny Phantom (save for his hair, eyes, and costume), was the same ghost-boy who disappeared right before an attack to go fight invading ghosts. Wes's real difficulty was getting the people of Amity Park to see the truth – they were all inherently blind to Danny's dual nature, despite how much evidence was presented to them! And so, Wes embarked to collectively compile information about Danny and to expose his secret to the entire world. Because, seriously, it was so _obvious_!

So when Wes noticed Danny visibly tense when he breathed out that blue mist, Wes smirked and followed Danny after he begged Mr. Lancer to let him leave the classroom. (It had become a routine dance: Danny quietly freaks out, asks to leave, Mr. Lancer denies, Danny pleads, Lancer complies, and Wes follows him whether Lancer adheres or not.)

Wes found himself outside quickly and scanned the air for Danny. He always arrived before him, which was expected given his powers and considering the fact that the ghosts tended to target him. Once he saw Danny hovering opposite a leathery trio of ghost vultures, Wes took refuge in his usual bush, positioning his camera up at the sky, and sketching a few words in his notepad.

Wes paid close attention to Danny's witty banter, because that was usually when he revealed his relationship to his opponents or accidentally revealed minor details about his species. From what he could hear from the current conversation, the three vultures were the minions of Danny's nemesis, 'Plasmius'. Apparently there were sent to collect a hostage for Plasmius, which Danny took as an affront. From there, that provocation developed into a true fight. Wes watched Danny's every move with keen observation.

 _Punch – punch – kick – dodge – punch – intangible – throw – kick – ectoblast – punch – dodge – intangible – punch – shield._

Once it was made clear that this fight was nothing out of the ordinary, Wes opted to take some pictures instead. And that, was where everything went wrong.

As soon as Wes took the picture, the flash from the camera caught the attention of all four ghosts, causing them to momentarily pause and glance towards Wes's bushes. Danny, who had grown painstakingly familiar with Wes's presence during his fights, didn't react much. The three vultures though, shared a dangerous look.

"Well, how about that," one of the vultures said. "The one boss wanted us to fetch is right here! What're the odds!"

"Very fortunate!" another vulture cried.

"Wait," Danny interrupted. "Vlad wants Wes? Vlad... wants _Wes_? What for?"

"None of your concern," said the third vulture.

"S-stay away from me," Wes said quickly, unnerved at the sudden turn of events. Vlad Plasmius sent his minions after him? Why? He was just the silent watcher? Why did Danny's nemesis need him? And why did he have to be some sort of hostage? More importantly, why wasn't he running away?

' _Curiosity and shock can numb the senses to the true severity of a situation_ ', something in the back of his mind whispered. ' _Tantalizing, isn't it?_ '

And then, swiftly, the fight resumed it's rapid pace. One of the vultures flew straight towards Wes while the other two defended against Danny. Wes stood still in transfixion.

"Wes, _run_!" Danny cried, unable to impede the vulture flying in Wes's direction.

And then, Wes broke from his trance and stumbled to his feet, nearly falling backwards from the momentary lack of balance. He turned in the opposite direction, running in a zig-zag pattern to throw off his pursuer. He didn't dare look back.

As he ran, his heart hammered within him, dangerously notifying him of his recent lack of exercise; after all, basketball season wasn't for another two months. It was hard to keep his head up, because of the camera's strain against his neck. But he had to keep going, he _had_ to.

Something told him, if he was captured by this ghost, the aftermath would _not_ be pretty.

Despite his efforts, Wes thrashed forwards when an icy claw dug into the back of his shoulder. Panic increased in his already extreme anxious state of being, as the claw pulled him off the ground, leaving him helplessly dangling in the vulture's grip.

Danny was somewhere far behind him, occupied with the two other foes (at least he hoped; he wouldn't put it past Danny to let him be kidnapped). But this didn't prevent Wes from fearfully crying out for rescue. Albeit, as the vulture pulled him higher up into the air, the less Wes's pleas were audible to Danny and the less Wes struggled against the vulture's grip – he was smart enough to realize that if he fell from this altitude, he had a one way ticket to the pavement.

He was going too high into the atmosphere, way too quickly.

It probably wasn't even safe for humans to fly this high, how can he think?

He could feel the air constricting in his lungs, tighter.

Making it more difficult to take breath after breath.

Breathing was so hard to think, it was easier-

With the clouds below him he wondered-

Why was the sun so bright-

When all he could see-

Was darkness...

Black.

* * *

When Wes awoke, he was welcomed with more darkness, the uncomfortable feeling of lying on a cold surface, and a horribly familiar voice.

"-be so foolish, Daniel. After all, like you, I strive to understand more about what we are, and without your cooperation, I'm forced to take certain measures."

That could only be one man: Vlad Masters, his Dad's boss and Mayor of Amity Park.

That only furthered Wes's overwhelming whirlwind of questions as his sensory input gradually slipped into overdrive. He could feel some sort of blindfold around his head, preventing him from seeing anything, and when he tried to remove it, he found that both his arms and legs were bound to some elevated platform or table. He also noted the apparent lack of a shirt, socks, and shoes. The air was tinged with the bitter smell of chemicals, reminiscent of the times Wes had snuck into the Fenton's laboratory.

Wherever he was, it was dangerous.

From where Wes was lying face-up, he heard another familiar voice somewhere to his right. "Y – you're sick, Vlad. You've gone too far! After the Danielle incident, you couldn't seriously think this could be a good idea?"

Danny was here (wherever that is) too. Either he'd followed Wes, or also gotten himself captured. He couldn't tell at the moment.

What had Vlad done? Was he responsible for those ghost vultures? Did he tie Wes up? And who was Danielle?

Stubbornly, Wes pretended to still be unconscious so he could listen and hopefully understand more about his current situation.

Vlad scoffed. "I don't have 'good ideas', Daniel. I have _effective_ ideas, and this one has lost it's convenience. Therefore, it shall be terminated."

"By termination, do you mean murder?" Danny's voice lowered dangerously.

Vlad's voice was alarmingly unaffected. "If you'd like to put it that way, then yes."

At that, Wes lost it. "W – what the _hell_ is going on?"

They were talking about _murder_ , and Vlad was sounding more and more like some heartless villain. He'd always known there was something off about him, but this – this was crazy! Then it occurred to Wes. Was Vlad planning to kill _him_? Was that why he was blindfolded and bound to a table? Immediately, his heart-rate spiked as he resumed his panic.

"Ah, young Wesley, you're finally awake," Vlad drawled. Since he couldn't see, the iciness of his voice sent shivers down Wes's spine.

"What do you want with me, Vlad?" Wes spat, probably looking very pathetic due to the fact that he was strapped to a table. "And why the hell am I blindfolded and tied up?"

Vlad sighed, "Ah, you truly know nothing, do you? I suppose he does take after you, Daniel."

"Shut up!" Danny protested. Wes was still unsure what Danny's role in this was, but it was clear that Vlad was the person behind this.

"I am nothing like Danny," Wes hissed.

"On the contrary," Vlad insisted.

" _You_ know nothing about me!" Wes told him. "You're just some creep – and apparently not a stranger to murder – who my Dad works for!"

Instead of another evasive retort from Vlad, Danny spoke in an uncharacteristically quiet voice. "Vlad. Stop this. Tell him the truth. Or I will."

"Do you intend to anger him, Daniel? Is this a part of your weak escape plan? You know that you're not getting out of that upgraded power-draining cube alone, don't you?"

So apparently Danny _had_ been captured. And apparently... from the sound of it, Vlad also knew Danny's secret. This was just getting more and more complex. And what was the truth Danny mentioned?

"I think you underestimate me," Danny replied, a contained fury evident in his voice.

"I know exactly what you're capable of," Vlad said. "But, I suppose it is fair to tell the boy the truth."

Suddenly, Wes felt a cold hand brush his ear, and suddenly there wasn't a blindfold obscuring his vision anymore.

There was ghost looking down at him. It was one he recognized as one of Phantom's really powerful enemies. He had pale blue skin, black hair styled into horns, red-eyes, fangs, and what appeared to be a cheap vampire outfit. He saw Danny (as Fenton) irritably trapped in a giant black cube so that only his head was visible. Wes glanced around to look for Vlad, until the ghost in front of him spoke...

"Hello Wesley."

The ghost spoke in Vlad's voice... meaning that he was the same as Danny. How had he missed that?

"I – oh..." Wes accidentally stuttered, before composing himself. "So you're actually evil, huh, Vlad? That makes a _lot_ of sense."

Vlad dramatically grinned, exposing his giant canines. "So you finally figured it out... congratulations, boy."

"Uh... yeah, but that still doesn't explain why you've captured me," Wes said.

"Well, it's less than simple," Vlad floated backwards. "But to cut to the point, I've brought you here to kill you, and I've detained Daniel so he doesn't interfere. However, he does insist that you know _why_ , after all, I suppose that's a courtesy that can be extended even to something like _you_."

"Uh... what?" Wes's head was spinning. He had already guessed that Vlad was trying to kill him, but to have his fears confirmed was paralyzing.

"I also insist that you _don't_ kill him at all," Danny seethed.

"Hush," Vlad said. "Now... where was I? Yes, well to begin, your identity as Wesley Weston are all false memories created by me. You've only existed as you do now for about the last seven months, when you started at Casper High as a tuition student. Everything before then: not real. Your father, Walter, isn't even your own father, he's just one of my employees that I've tasked with the job of monitoring you."

"That's not true," Wes said. "I mean, I've known who I am my whole life! And my Dad loves me, he can't just be... _pretending_."

"As I said, everything you know to be true about your past is simply an illusion. The faster you can accept that, the easier the rest of this will be to understand."

"You're a crazed up fruit-loop!" Wes jerked his wrists against his bonds.

Vlad gave no response, but instead glared at him as if he were being ridiculous. "I'll continue, when you stop acting like a ludicrous child."

Eventually, Wes gave in and stopped resisting his handcuffs. He couldn't believe Vlad, but if he were to learn more, he had no choice but to listen to him. Even if he was some psycho-villainous half-ghost. Wes ignored Danny's look of guilt in the corner of his eye, and stared directly as Vlad, pressing him to continue.

"Since I've learned about Daniel and I's shared existence, I've yearned for a clearer understanding of what we are. However, he makes it difficult since he refuses to yield to me-"

"Oh, like you haven't given me plenty of reasons-"

"This isn't the time, Daniel!" Vlad snapped, before immediately returning to Wes. "So, since he refused to become my son and assist me with my scientific endeavors, I was forced to create substitutes. Identical clones of the perfect half-human, half-ghost son."

"Wait, wait, wait," Wes interrupted. "Cloning? That's not possible."

"Please," Vlad rolled his eyes. "It's plenty possible if you're not afraid to cross some ethical barriers. Modern scientists would be capable of so much more if they were not bound to society's rules of 'right' and 'wrong'. Anyway, the first batch of Daniel's clones was a mess. They only had ghost forms and most failed to resemble him at all, so they were disposed of. I had more luck with the second group: they were all imperfect, but a few were able to switch forms, which was an improvement. It allowed me to realize that what I needed was some of his mid-morph DNA. So I sent one of my failures, Danielle, to lure Daniel to me so I could collect that particular part of his DNA so I could use it for my new clone. However, she was more flawed than I initially thought, and turned against me.

"After that, I reevaluated my priorities. Rather than cloning the perfect son, I could focus on spying on Daniel so I can further understand our species and learn ways to persuade him to come to me himself. At first, I used cameras and bugs, but he would find those too easily and destroy them – even the ones that I gave directly to Jack!"

"When you give something to Dad out of the goodness of your heart, it's a dead give away," Danny commented.

"Of course, I could have spied on him myself, but I'm constantly busy with my own life and mayoral duties, and he would automatically detect my presence with his ghost sense. So I needed someone that I could insert in his daily life, someone motivated, someone who didn't even know they were under my control... _You_ , Wesley."

Wes choked, "What? I – I don't work for you!"

"Your orders are subliminal. Your mission was to collect information and observe Daniel, that way I could review your findings in a later date without having to get directly involved. In fact, much of it has been of use to me. However, you exceeded your purpose when you began to attempt to expose Daniel. He and I may be mortal enemies, but we have... a pact. When one of us loses our secret, so does the other. For weeks, I've tried to debilitate your interest, but it's been for nil. So, therefore, you have to meet your end."

"B – but that doesn't make _any_ sense! You'd kill a kid, a human being just because I tried to prove to others that Danny is a ghost?" Wes cried in incredulity.

"No," Vlad's apathetic gaze bore into him, "I'm killing you because you have no purpose anymore, and you're much more a hindrance than a benefit. Not to mention, you're a pain."

"I still don't understand! How does this have anything to do w – with me having false memories a – and you making clones? You're just talking yourself in circles."

"You mean you really don't get it, do you?" Vlad groaned. "I thought it was really quite obvious, but I stand beside myself. You _are_ a clone, Wesley. That's why you look so much like Daniel, except you only have his human side. When I created you, I did make a few alterations, such as the red-hair. That was part of my attempt to make you look more like Maddie than Jack, but as a result, you inherited more of Jack's brutish height than he did. But all in all, you're his copy, which is why you must be eliminated. You're not even a true life form, which is why I have no guilt killing you."

Every word slammed into Wes's chest like a freight train, "No... _no._ No no no no no!"

"Yes, Wesley," Vlad whispered. "You see, don't you? You've never been real. You're just a form of artificial life that I crafted in this very lab... you were just my tool."

"Don't say that!"

"But you still know it's true. Can you even remember a time when you weren't subliminally drawn to Danny? Can you remember the first time you looked in a mirror and felt as if something was wrong with your reflection, that the colors were all wrong?"

"Just s – shut up!"

Vlad smiled, with a sick satisfaction. "The few times you've been in proximity of Jazz, Maddie, or Jack, how you felt a blind trust in them? How you've yearned for some further connection to them, despite the fact that Walter's your family? It's the truth within your DNA. You've known along about your true nature, you've just been too scared to admit it."

"This isn't true!"

"And the flaw, that I previously failed to realize... you only wanted to expose Danny's secret because you were jealous of his powers. The powers that I stole from you, that should've been yours as his clone."

"Please... stop," a tear trailed down Wes's face.

Vlad loomed over him and whispered, "Because all you were capable of being was a failure."

From behind him, something shifted, and neither of them had any time to react when an ectoblast came in contact with the back of Vlad's head, causing him to stumble onto the floor. Vlad must have been so disoriented that he didn't move when Danny turned into his ghost form and unleashed his wail directly onto Vlad, causing both of them to simultaneously revert into their human forms, and causing Vlad to pass out.

Danny stood over the fallen hybrid with a stoic expression. "I told him he underestimated me."

Wes stared at his savior in shock.

Danny turned to look towards Wes, and laughed a little, "I guess it was good I was carrying the Fenton Energy-Extractor, huh? It basically shut down all the energy powering the cube and let me escape. Thankfully, I grabbed it from my backpack right before I realized I was about to be captured; Vlad's too predicable."

He walked forward and started untying Wes's bonds. "We should probably get out of here as quickly as possible. Vlad won't stay passed out for very long, probably thirty minutes at max, and after that he'll be looking for you. And since you're fully human, he won't be able to track you, which means the two of us should separate."

Danny finished untying Wes, allowing him to sit up from the metal table he'd been lying on. He nodded numbly. Danny sat next to him on the table.

"Hey," Danny said, softly. "Are you alright? Well, that's a standard question. I know all of this is a lot to take in."

"Did you know?" Wes asked, too afraid to look Danny in the eye. "Did you know that I was your..."

"No," Danny said honestly. "I didn't know until Vlad told me when he put me in that cube. Sure, I suspected that there was something about you that allowed you to easily see through my secret, but... I would've never imagined..."

The two of them sat on the table in uncomfortable silence. The room was heavy with melancholic recognition of their new reality.

"What am I supposed to do now?" Wes wondered, hopelessly. "This – this isn't fair! I don't even feel like I'm real anymore!"

"I know," Danny comforted. "But... don't be too hard on yourself. Keep in mind, this is all Vlad's fault. Just because he made you in his lab, doesn't mean that you're a less of a human being. You can live whatever life you want."

"But what if Vlad was right? What if I'm just jealous of _your_ life?" He felt as if it was true. When Vlad had mentioned that, he really did recognize his own feelings within that statement; he only wanted to reveal Danny's secret because he felt like he ached for his own ghost powers. Not to mention, Danny's friends and family always seemed more preferable to his own. It was just more confirmation that Wes had never been his own person, that he was only just a carbon copy.

"I don't... know," Danny replied, solemnly. "But we don't have time to spare. We'll have to figure something out in the meantime, but we need to get you out of Amity Park ASAP. We can keep in touch with email and work from there. Since I can't fly right now, we can buy you a bus ticket, it's our only option."

"I – I wish it wasn't," Wes admitted. "But I agree."


	8. Power Surge

Day Nine: Power Surge

Genre: Suspense

Words: 2007

* * *

With all the damage from ghost attacks, it wasn't uncommon for there to be regular electrical grid maintenance. And with maintenance, naturally came a few irritating blackouts, while power surges were a little more rare. Sure, they happened every once in a while, but not on a very large scale, and they usually occurred during the middle of the day when nobody was home.

Today, however was different.

Jack and Maddie Fenton had dragged both of their children down into the lab to demonstrate their latest invention. Neither Jazz or Danny were very interested (all they cared about was whether or not it could harm Danny, so they immediately lost concern), so the both of them found something else to occupy their attention while their father rambled on about the practicality of the new Fenton Speculum, which was a device that revealed how a ghost had died. It was relatively harmless, however, the Fenton parents were hoping to use it on Danny Phantom to prove to the townsfolk that he is a deceitful evil, menace.

It was definitely an invention for Danny to avoid, but aside from that, they didn't really need to know that much about it.

Jazz was currently trying to focus on her newest psychology book, and Danny was staring at the wall, clearly zoning out and thinking about something other than her parents' desire to prove his alter ego was evil.

Honestly, how had their lives become this complicated?

"-and that's how _that_ button works!" Jack finished, proudly holding out the L-shaped device for his children to see.

"Great," Danny said dryly, "can we go upstairs now? I need to be working on homework so I don't fail all my classes."

Maddie frowned, "But we still haven't showed you how it works. Yes, your education's important, but you have the rest of the night to do homework. It's only six o'clock! You have plenty of time."

Danny sighed in resignation and allowed his parents to keep rambling.

"Alright, so this mechanism here," Jack turned the device over in his hand, "should trigger this circuit which should allow the device to sense the presence of a ghost's ectosignature! Like this," he pressed a button on the device, which immediately lit up in a blue light.

 _'Ectosignature detected! Two feet away! Cross reference in database?'_

"Ghost!" Jack cried. "Two feet from me!"

"Jack," Maddie groaned, "there's no ghost. It's just malfunctioning again. Remember, it just tends to do that around Danny ever since that accident with the portal."

"Oh," Jack said, dejectedly, "that's right. Wait, do you think that the portal could be the cause of it? Could it still be somehow affecting you, Danno?"

"Uh, nope!" Danny said nervously. "I was just standing near the portal when it turned on, remember? Got a tiny shock, passed out for thirty seconds, and I'm fine! Totally _completely_ , fine!"

"It's just a fluke, Jack," Maddie reasoned. "We'd know if there was something wrong with our boy."

"I guess you're right," Jack admitted. "After all, no one's got a tougher skin than a Fenton! That portal couldn't hurt you if it tried!"

Danny hesitantly laughed, "Hehe, you bet!"

Jazz elbowed Danny, and muttered out of their parents' earshot, "You're being too obvious. Tone it down."

"Shut up," he hissed in reply.

"Now..." Jack said, "Where were we? Oh, right! I was demonstrating the Fenton Speculum..."

At those words, all the lights in the lab instantaneously crackled before glowing twice as bright, and an audible buzzing noise surrounded the occupants of the high-tech basement. Jazz jumped and fell back into Danny, causing the siblings to stumble back into the counter behind them. Jack still held the Fenton Speculum in his hand, holding it outright, while Maddie stared up at the ceiling.

"What was _that_?" Danny asked.

"It seems like some sort of power surge..." Maddie observed. "Probably the electrical maintenance outside."

"W – what's wrong with the portal?" Jazz asked, panicked, being the only family member to notice the green sparks originating from the structure in the wall. The sparks pierced the air like half-formed lightning bolts, before fizzling out into nothing. Suddenly, one of the green bolts of energy jetted forward and directly consumed the Fenton Speculum, still in Jack's hand.

Jack dropped his prized invention immediately, allowing it to fall to the floor.

"The power surge must've been too much for the portal!" Jazz guessed. "Now who knows what it's doing?"

The four family members watched in horrifying awe as the device on the floor started to glow green itself and illuminate the lab with a beacon of ethereal light as the portal started to swirl more brightly and violently.

"That doesn't look good," Danny commented.

"If energy from the portal hit the Fenton Speculum, that must mean the Speculum is recognizing the portal as an individual ectosignature, which means it's trying to show the portal's death!" Maddie hypothesized.

"But since the portal isn't a ghost, it doesn't have a death. So what the heck could it be doing?" Jack wondered.

Danny had a very, _very_ vague idea, and he didn't like it.

"Mom, Dad, how does the Speculum actually show 'a death'?" Jazz asked, clearly thinking along the same line as Danny.

"Well, it creates a 3D holographic image and then projects it, sweetie," Maddie explained. "You'd know if you were liste..."

The Fenton Speculum then started to vibrate, and all of a sudden, a grid of green lasers enveloped the space within the lab, pulsing in sync with the portal. And then, the portal went almost completely dark, appearing to be in the state it was in when it was first constructed. There was still a green net of light over the lab, creating a holographic landscape for the Speculum's projection.

Jack and Maddie gawked at the phenomenon with fascination.

"This isn't exactly what we intended the invention for... but this is becoming interesting," Maddie whispered.

In the middle of the lab, three distinguishable bodies of light formed from the floor, creating grainy holograms of three different figures. At first, the holograms were devoid of much detail, though they were gradually becoming more defined, so it was clear who the three people in the projection were.

Danny and Jazz realized what it meant immediately, and looked at their parents with dread. There was no way to prevent them from witnessing what was bound to come next. They were screwed.

"Wait," Jack said, "isn't that-"

"Danny?" Maddie questioned. "Sam? Tucker?"

After the holograms were fully formed, they began to move, as if reenacting a play. Danny's hologram was the first to move, and a warbled version of his voice echoed throughout the lab.

"Okay, I showed you the portal. Can we get outta here now? My parents could be back here any minute. Besides, they say it doesn't work anyway."

"Is this..." Jack said slowly, "the accident? Why would the portal be showing us this?"

Maddie thought for a moment. "All a ghost's death is, is the moment that a ghost comes into existence. So by that logic, we didn't create the Fenton Speculum to show us a ghost's death, but rather, an ectoentity's formation. If you look at it a certain way, the portal is an ectoentity all by itself. So that means, that Danny's accident was the moment that the portal came into existence, which is why we're seeing this."

"So basically," Jack concluded, "The Fenton Speculum show's a ghost's formation rather than death, and this qualifies as the portal's 'formation'."

"It makes sense," Maddie said.

Sam's hologram walked across the lab and stood in front of the portal, gazing inside. When she spoke, her voice was also distorted. "Come on Danny, a Ghost Zone? Aren't you curious? You gotta check it out."

Danny's hologram stood still for a moment, before looking up at Sam, appearing to have made up his mind about the portal, "You know what? You're right. Who knows what kind of awesome super cool things that exist on the other side of that portal."

The lab was eerily quiet. "You didn't actually go _inside_ the portal, did you, Danno?" Jack asked.

"Don't be ridiculous, Jack," Maddie said. "He knows better than to do that."

Danny watched as Jazz looked like she was about to say something, and locked eyes with her, rendering her back to silence.

The family watched as the past version of Danny put on the white HAZMAT suit, and looked towards the vacant portal at the back of the lab. Sam's hologram stepped forward, "Hang on," she tore the sticker of Jack's face off of the suit. "You can't be walking around with that on your chest."

Jack frowned, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Without any further words, Danny ventured forward and walked inside the of the portal, eliciting two gasps from his parents. At the same time, Jazz tightly clenched Danny's hand, knowing exactly what was about to happen next. Both children prayed for something to stop the holographic scene, but it was too late.

The memory of Danny's rebirth as Phantom had began.

The Fentons were granted with a front seat viewing of exactly what happened inside the portal. They watched as Danny dragged his feet along the inside of the portal, and accidentally tripped over a cluster of wires. He fell against the wall, almost in slow motion, and then there was a loud: CLICK.

And then, everything happened at once.

Danny knew what was coming, after all, he'd been through it himself. Jazz knew a little, but not much to truly prepare her from the horror that was her brother's half-death. And for their parents... everything registered as an initial shock, disbelief clouding their perception of the scene in front of them.

But all aside, it hit everybody in the same place emotionally. It was devastatingly heart-crushing to have to witness/relive the pain that Danny experienced that day.

Hologram Danny froze in the portal, a green star-burst of light ripping directly through his chest. Bright white lights started flashing at an exponential rate, illuminating Danny's body as it was wracked with thousands of volts of electricity, tearing raw, anguished screams from his throat. His entire body arced with pain, his body erratically convulsing as his arms were frozen upwards. His tortured screaming resounded throughout the entire lab, allowing his misery to be heard in the fullest extent.

The long he was in the portal, his body started to change. His white HAZMAT suit slowly blackened, while his black boots and gloves turned white; his pale skin gradually tanned; his alarmed eyes shifted from a dull blue to a blazing green, that clearly resembled the ectoplasm in the portal; and his midnight black hair was sapped of all color, becoming a pure white. It took Jack and Maddie much longer than it should have to register that instead of their son, Danny Fenton, they were looking at the image of Danny Phantom – the evil ghost boy who often wreaked havoc on Amity Park. Or, so they had thought.

"D – Danny?" Maddie whispered, refraining from looking back at her actual son because she was far too captivated by his hologram.

Through it all, Jazz clung to her brother, far too shocked to think of anything to say, for her comfort or his.

As Phantom's emergence was complete, Danny's hologram fell unceremoniously out of the portal and Sam ran out to catch him, only for him to fall directly through her arms. Her voice resembled Maddie's moments earlier:"Danny?"

And that's where the holographic projection stopped. The bodies of light froze and within seconds, melted away, leaving nothing but the four Fentons.

Jack and Maddie blankly gaped at their son, completely appalled. He looked straight back at them, obviously ashamed and afraid, yet he wore a thin mask of prevalence.

When he realized that they were waiting for him to speak first, Danny rubbed the back of his neck and laughed nervously. "Well, uh... funny story. The portal _may_ have affected me some, after all..."


	9. Two Glowing Boys in a Cage

Day Ten: Cross Over

Fandoms: Danny Phantom/Trollhunters

(If you've never seen Trollhunters, check it out it's really good! Trust me!)

Genre: Friendship

Words: 2236

* * *

For some reason, Danny was a lot more calm than the other glowing kid in the cage. Of course, if the other guy wasn't used to being kidnapped by a crazy ringmaster and imprisoned with a ghost kid, it would make sense to be a little freaked out by the situation.

The armored boy was currently trying to cut through the bars of their confinement, but to little avail. On the surface he seemed both frustrated and worried, which was the polar opposite of Danny's current composure. To tell the truth, it was a little pitiful how easily he had accepted being thrown in a cage by one of his enemies.

"I _have_ to find a way out of here," the other guy said, pacing through their limited space, holding his two knive-things close to his side. The luminescence of his armor competed with Danny's natural ghostly glow for dominance.

"Well," Danny said, leaning against his side of the cage, "strategy wise, we're kinda limited at the moment. Our only option is to wait for an opening, or for rescue."

The other guy stopped pacing, and looked back at Danny. His eyes examined him imploringly, as if he was trying to piece together how Danny fit into the situation. Finally, he gave a resigned sigh and sat down across from Danny.

"Do this a lot?" He posed the question casually, as if they were sitting in a coffee shop rather than in a metal cage suspended from the ceiling.

Danny nodded, a ghost a smirk on his lips, "Unfortunately."

The other guy fidgeted with his curved daggers, before eventually deciding to put them away by letting them simply dissipate into the air. He struggled for a moment, unsure of what to say before he took the plunge.

"So... who are you again? And not to be rude, but _what_ are you?"

Danny gave an innoxious shrug, making it clear he found no offense in the other boy's question. "Well, I thought Freakshow made it clear, but I'm a ghost. Danny Phantom," he introduced. "And you? What's your story? You look like a normal kid, so how'd you end up with that magic armor?"

Danny expected the kid to have some reaction when he said he was a ghost, but instead, the other boy took it in stride – or at least he didn't let his surprise show on the surface. "I'm well... Jim Lake. I'm the Trollhunter."

Danny zoned out before reigning himself back into reality. "I'm sorry, the what?" he raised an eyebrow. "What kind of superhero name is that?"

Jim laughed a little. "Actually, it's less of a name, and more of a title," he explained. "The Trollhunter is someone who is chosen by this amulet," he gestured to a glowing sundial embedded in his armor, sitting directly above his heart, "to protect the world from evil trolls. And I'm not really a superhero... no one besides my friends knows about what I do, so I can't really be considered one. I'm more of a guy who just saves the world from the shadows..."

Danny's eyes bulged, "Wait, so you're saying there's such thing as _trolls_?"

Jim nodded. "Yeah, and more than that. I mean, I've also fought gnomes, goblins, a stalkling, a gruesome, pixies – oh, and changelings."

"Well," Danny muttered, subconsciously running his fingers through his snowy hair, "I think I've met my daily limit of having my mind implode."

Neither of them really knew what to say next, so Jim decidedly glanced back at Danny. "So if you're a ghost... why can't you just go through the bars or something? You can do that right, go through things?"

Danny shrugged, "Normally, yeah. But these are ghost proof bars. I can't phase through them."

"I think they may be magic proof too..." Jim speculated. "That would explain why Claire hasn't found me with her Shadow Staff yet."

"Claire?" Danny asked.

"She's my friend... well, maybe girlfriend, I don't know. Besides the point, she has this dark magic staff that can create portals anywhere. She should've been able to find me a while ago... but..." he sighed. "This isn't looking too good. This was just supposed to be a simple job and now I'm halfway across the country imprisoned by some nutjob who decided to steal from Trollmarket."

"It could be worse," Danny offered.

Jim gave him an incredulous look, "How?"

"Last time I encountered Freakshow, he stole a gauntlet that could control reality, revealed my secret identity on live TV, locked my family up for three days, and I had to go on the run from the government. Now _that_ sucked. Thankfully, I reversed everything with the gauntlet before destroying it. That's not even taking my first encounter with Freakshow into account either..." Danny shuddered at the memory of when Freakshow had brainwashed him and made him commit heinous crimes, almost irreversibly tarnishing his hero reputation. The scariest part hadn't been that he was unaware of his actions, but the fact that Freakshow had somehow made him _enjoy_ it.

"Oh..." Jim said, " _Wow_. I mean, I got a call from one of my troll friends that there was a human in Trollmarket – which is this underground troll city – and when I showed up, he had frozen half of the citizens with the Adhibere Algus, which is an artifact that can freeze anything for up to three hours. I went after him, but I ended up fighting with him in the gyre and before I knew it, I'm in freaking Illinois. But that's not even half as bad..."

"Yeah. Whatever Freakshow's planning... it can't be good," Danny said. "I got here this time because I sensed his ghost servant, Lydia. He clearly knew I was coming because he shocked me from behind and threw me in here." He pulled his knees to his chest. "I really hope Sam and Tucker notice I'm gone and look for me this time."

"Are they other ghosts?" Jim asked.

"Huh?" Danny asked. "Oh, no. They're some human friends I have. Bestfriends. They usually help me out whenever I get into situations like this, which is a lot more than it should be." He said the last part more quietly, but Jim picked up on it anyway.

"And _why_ do you usually get into situations like this?" he questioned."I mean, what are you doing with your afterlife that makes this a typical situation?"

Danny bit his lip. "You said you're not from around here, right?"

"Yeah," Jim confirmed. "I live back in California, a town called Arcadia Oaks."

"Well, here in Amity Park, there's a bunch of ghost attacks. We're officially the most haunted city in the country, but the government either thinks we're a complete joke, or deliberately covers everything up. But... I'm the one who fights off most of the other ghosts. I've made it my job to keep them inside the Ghost Zone, where they can't hurt anybody or plot world domination." He paused, "And sometimes, I have to make sure psychos like Freakshow don't become ruler of reality."

"So you have it about as hard as me," Jim realized.

Danny grinned, "Since you're the 'Trollhunter', I guess you could call me the 'Ghosthunter'... Wait, never mind, that title already belongs to Skulker. I don't like the ring to it anyway. Danny Phantom is ten times more witty."

Both of the boys genuinely laughed, temporarily forgetting the circumstances of their imprisonment and recognizing the other as someone who could truly understand the difficulty of a hero's devotion.

* * *

"I don't understand, TP," Claire said. "I'm trying to use Jim as my emotional anchor, but it's like he fell off the face of the world – I can't find him!"

"Well, that's why we had to follow him to the gyre's last destination," Toby said, following Claire out of the shadowy maintenance tunnel. "If he's anywhere, it's probably here."

"But why would Jim come to Illinois?" Claire deadpanned.

"Blinky said he was following a thief. Maybe the thief came here, so he had to follow him," Toby suggested. The two of them were now walking along a vacant urban street in the dim light of dusk, reminding them of the two-hour time zone shift from California.

"I don't know," Claire said, warily eyeing the abandoned city block. "Something just feels... off to me."

Up until then, neither Claire nor Toby had noticed any other occupants within the area, until a dark-haired girl in goth apparel clutched Claire's shoulder from behind and forced her to turn around. For a moment the two girls stared at each other. Claire wore a profound look of confusion while the goth girl seemed to search her face for some sort of recognition.

"Not overshadowed..." the girl muttered under her breath, glancing back at Toby before returning to Claire, and finally releasing her grip from her shoulder. Claire, recovering from her momentary disarray, noticed that in her other hand, the girl grasped a chunky, silver and green, block of tech that looked like some sort GPS tracker.

Suddenly, from behind the strange new girl, an out of breath black boy sporting a red beret approached.

"Sam... you... run too... fast," the boy panted, stopping next to the mysterious girl.

The girl growled in apparent agitation, "Well, I'm not just going to stand around when Danny's gone and the Fenton Finder brings us to some random chick on the street instead of our _missing_ best friend. I thought maybe, if she was overshadowed, we might have a better chance of finding him, but instead it looks like we're back at square one!"

"I'm sorry, what are you talking about?" Claire interjected.

"None of your business," Sam spat.

"Well clearly it _is_ ," Claire put a hand on her hip.

"You're just some tourist," Sam rolled her eyes. "I don't owe you any explanation. Now, come on Tucker. We have to go find Danny."

"Shouldn't we at least figure out _why_ the Finder let us here?" Tucker said. "I mean, there's no way it's malfunctioning. Mrs. Fenton's inventions are usually flawless, whether she knows it or not."

"I am _so_ lost," Toby declared.

Sam groaned in frustration, " _Fine_. I'll ask, since you insist, o'wise technogeek." She addressed Claire and Toby, "This," she began, pointing to the tracker in her hands, "is the Fenton Finder. It tracks ghosts. Can either of you tell me why it could be tracking you?"

"Ghosts?" Toby questioned.

" _Yes_ , ghosts," Sam said, exasperatedly. "You're only in the most haunted city in America for crying out loud! Now, answer."

"We don't know why your stupid tracker is pointing towards us," Claire defended. "The only thing I have with me is my Shadow... _oh_. That might be it."

"Why would a magic staff show up on a ghost tracker?" Toby asked.

"How am I supposed to know? I don't even know what this thing is _made_ of, other than dark magic," Claire hissed.

"Dark magic?" Tucker furrowed his brow. "Do you buy it, Sam?"

"Maybe," the girl confessed. "If it's actual magic, which I don't doubt exists, seeing as the Ghost Zone is real, then the Finder may not be able to differentiate the frequencies of magic and ecto-signatures very well. It would make sense."

"I'm still skeptical," Tucker said.

"So, what kind of dark magic are you hiding?" Sam turned towards Claire again.

"Uh... well – I-" the girl stammered. "People usually don't believe in magic. Or anything out of the ordinary."

"People are different here," Sam explained.

Claire looked hesitant to divulge the information, so Toby took the lead. "She has a staff that can teleport us anywhere."

"Wicked," Sam grinned.

"Hey," Tucker said, "maybe that can take us to Danny!"

"Who's Danny?" Toby asked. "You said he was missing."

"He's our friend. He... probably got into trouble with someone bad, so we're looking for him," Sam stated.

"Well, if you don't know where he is," Claire said, "it won't be much use. That's why we're here, one of our friends went missing too, but we can't find him. Normally I could teleport to him, because I know him, but for some reason I'm unable to reach him."

"Well, that sucks," Tucker frowned. "If you don't mind me asking, how did your friend go missing? Because sometimes there's a chance that they might be together."

"I doubt it, Tucker," Sam said. "After all, they're not from Amity."

"Well, he was supposedly chasing after this thief," Toby supplied.

"Hmm," Sam said, in thought. "What'd this thief look like?"

"We didn't see him," Toby said, remembering Blinky's description of the man, "but he had almost gray skin, and had this black and red coat and top-hat."

"Wait a minute..." Tucker said, slowly, "that sounds like-"

" _Freakshow_." Sam's eyes darkened with a murderous gleam.

"If he's involved, Danny's definitely involved too!" Tucker declared. "That means Danny _is_ with your friend!"

"So Jim is with your guys' friend, Danny?" Claire asked. "Are you _sure_?"

"If what you told us is true, then almost certainly," Sam confirmed.

"So..." Toby started, "do you guys want to team up to find them both?"

Tucker nodded, "That's probably the best decision at this point."

As the sun sank in the sky with a finality for the night, the four allies walked together, trading information and aligning strategies on how to save their 'heroes' from the clutches of Freakshow.

* * *

 **I feel like I kind sucked at Jim's characterization since I've never written for Trollhunters before, but eh, I think it's at least good enough for the story to flow. Also, I've got a ten day streak now! I can't believe I'm 1/3 through Phanniemay!**


	10. Stars

Day Eleven: Stars

Genre: Hurt/Comfort

Words: 2052

* * *

Valerie groaned as her suit tormented her for the third time that night. The ghost alert on her wrist buzzed insistently, causing her to almost smack herself in the arm in pure annoyance. She had a test to study for, and none of these ghosts would allow her any time to actually be active in her own life. Not to mention, that aside from the Fentons (who hadn't been quite enthusiastic since... the _accident_ ), she was the only ghost hunter, so that meant she had to take care of almost every ghostly threat within Amity Park. Nevertheless, ghost hunting was her responsibility as the Red Huntress, so therefore, no matter how tired she was, she couldn't turn away from the impending battle. Whoever it was, she just hoped that they would let her cram them in a thermos so she could actually _pass_ Lancer's exam, otherwise, she was looking at a new brand of hell called summer school.

She kicked off from the ground, allowing her suit to activate her jet-sled and to propel her into the air. She leaned into the momentum of the board and programmed her GPS to fly her to where the ghost was staying idle in one position over the park, hovering at approximately 6,000 feet in the air. As Valerie flew, a light breeze brushed past her as she soared, higher and higher into the darkness of the sky, further away from the artificial city lights below and up towards the clouds. Even though she was flying into battle, she was half tempted to remove her helmet so she could feel the cold winds flutter through her hair, but thought better of herself. She was here to dispose of the threat, nothing else, and then she would return home.

 _Focus, Valerie,_ she chastised herself.

Finally, she saw it. She was over the lowest clouds now, with only an expanse of pure black and faint white pinpricks above her. Hence, the darkness of the night sky didn't hide her prey very well; his ethereal white glow illuminated the immediate area around him, drawing Valerie's eyes to him like a moth to a flame. She smirked. _Gotcha_!

The ghost itself wasn't very intimidating. From behind she could see that he had the stature of a young boy, maybe somewhere around thirteen, with iridescent pearl white hair. He wore plain beige pants with a plain black and sky blue shirt with matching Converse. From where Valerie floated, he looked practically harmless! After all, unlike most of her foes, he wasn't purposely wreaking destruction upon the town, which was a pleasantly nice break from her usual chaotic brawls. However, she had to remind herself that he was still a ghost, so he _had_ to be contained for the safety of the town. Furthermore, as a veteran fighter, Valerie knew not to let a ghost's looks deceive her. That ghost's appearance was nothing more than a mirage; his true power could be more immense than a ghost ten times his size. They were tricky creatures to classify when it came to strength evaluation.

She snuck behind him, half expecting him to sense her presence, but he remained none the wiser to the stealthy human huntress floating just feet away from him, trying to decide the best strategy for this situation. Pulling the thermos out on him first thing would probably be a bad move; unless a ghost was already weakened from a prior attack, it was unlikely that even a weak specter would stay thoroughly contained. So, the other option was to initiate a strong attack before he noticed her, which meant she should hurry, because he wouldn't stay unaware of her stalking him for long.

Just as Valerie pulled her giant blaster onto her shoulder, preparing to fire at the new ghost, he looked back at her, startled.

Valerie was floored. She... she recognized this ghost.

His green eyes reflected eerily in the visor of her suit, and the ghostly light from his body cast odd shadows across his face. It looked so familiar, yet so _wrong_. Valerie half wondered if she had fallen off of her board, into some sort of dream, but she found that the boy in front of her was startlingly legit. As she gaped at him, he looked back just as surprised, and his puzzled expression gripped Valerie's heart with a sympathy she didn't know she had.

There was no doubt about it in Valerie's mind. This was the ghost of Valerie's old classmate, Danny Fenton. The same boy who had died in an untimely accident in his parents' laboratory two years ago. The boy who had lowered all the flags in the city, the boy whose face was all over the television for weeks, the boy people cried for at the many candlelight vigils. Valerie herself had attended his funeral, with the rest of the city, wondering hopelessly how something so tragic could have occurred.

And he was a ghost.

"Please don't shoot me," he whispered.

Valerie almost fell off of her board in shock. It was unnerving to hear his voice crackle with the warbled sound of a ghost's. She'd never really been close to him when he was alive, but he was one of those people that everyone just _knew_. Now here she was, faced with an impossible dilemma; shoot him, or not. He was a ghost ( _evil, malevolent, killer!_ ), but he was also the sweet boy Valerie knew from school that had died so, so young. Decisively, Valerie quickly made up her mind. She abandoned her blaster and let it recede and compress back into her suit.

"D – Danny Fenton?" she asked, heedfully. She didn't know how much he could remember from his life. From what she could tell, some ghosts recalled their Earthly existence perfectly, while some failed to remember anything.

But as she said the former human's name, his faced turned to one of recognizable bafflement. Valerie noted that his reaction suggested that it had been a _very_ long time since he had heard his own name spoken, presumably since before his death.

"How...?" his voice sounded so crippled, yet hungry for any form of recognition. In hopes of reuniting with someone who remembered his identity, he frantically scanned Valerie's afflicted form. "Do you _know_ me?"

Valerie didn't know how to answer. So far, Danny wasn't showing any malevolence on the surface and appeared quite genuine, but she knew that all that could chance in a second. Thus she carefully pressed one of the buttons hidden on the inside of her wrist, and her visor retreated back inside her suit, allowing her head to be completely exposed to the brisk winds of the unrelenting sky.

The ghost stared back at her in wonder, evidently trying to place her name and where he knew her from. Finally, he responded to her spontaneous reveal, with a dubious tone. "...Valerie? From school?"

She nodded, numbly.

"Why are you... here? In the sky, with a hoverboard?" he asked, sounding both awkward and confused. _Even after death, that boy is a nervous wreck_ , Valerie thought, incoherently.

She pursed her lips. "I hunt – uh... I keep ghosts out of Amity Park," she corrected herself.

What was she thinking? He was a ghost, and she just admitted that she came here to hunt him down. _Stupid stupid stupid!_

"But..." Valerie continued quickly, noticing his volatile look of panic, "I won't hurt you, unless you're hurting somebody else. I promise. I... just do this because there's so many ghosts who destroy our city... and somebody has to make sure Amity is safe."

"Oh," he said, understanding. "That makes sense. A lot of the other ghosts get carried away, so I can understand that. It's not their fault they happened to get stuck with violent obsessions, a lot of them are really nice, but that doesn't make their actions good, I guess." He paused, and looked back at Valerie graciously, "Oh, and thanks for not shooting me."

All of what he was saying was going too quickly for Valerie's head to process. She'd never had a real conversation with a ghost before, likewise a ghost of somebody she had known when they were alive. It was simply too surreal for her to be talking to Danny Fenton's remains of post-life consciousness like they were two old colleagues meeting in a coffee shop.

"I'm sorry," she said, "what do you mean by 'obsessions'?"

"Oh, for a ghost to form and stay in existence, we have to have some kind of obsession or unfulfilled reason keeping us here," he explained. "It's basically what drives each of us and our actions, and if we don't indulge in it enough, we can become really weak and sick. It takes a lot for someone to get over their obsession, and if they do, they get to move on to what's next, whatever that is."

Valerie thought of some her common enemies. Skulker, obsessed with hunting; Ember, obsessed with fame; Technus, obsessed with technology; Spectra, obsessed with others' misery; Box Ghost obsessed with... you know; etc. From the standpoint Danny was offering, it made sense now why they did what they did, and she felt herself being slightly impressed. But that left another pressing question.

"What's your obsession?" she blurted.

As he processed her words, Danny's green eyes blazed aggressively and he clenched his fists, which thereafter began to glow green. Then, his expression placated once again and he lost all signs of hostility.

"Sorry," he said, quickly. "That's just something that's taboo to ask, but since you didn't really know I'm okay with it. You can assume a ghost's obsession, but you don't really ask because it's _really_ personal. It's up there with asking about how someone died."

He turned to where he was floating on his back now, "My obsession," he said, "is space. When I was alive, my dream was to be an astronaut so I could explore the planets and stars and see all of it, but... I never got the chance because of Mom and Dad's portal killing me and stuff."

The way he phrased his death so casually made Valerie slightly sick, but she fought her revulsion for his sake. She could still remember the grim faces of her friends when all of the students were corralled into the gym when they made the official announcement. That day had made it clear: Danny's death was to be respected, not a light matter.

He laughed, "I guess that's why like all the other ghosts, I came into the human world tonight. All I ever wanted was to get to space, and the Ghost Zone is a great substitute for that but... it's not real. Sure, it's an infinite abyss full of potential exploration... but... there's no stars," he remarked, almost bitterly. "How can it can it be space with no stars?"

He gestured upwards. Valerie looked back up at the sky, and now that her eyes had adjusted to the night's darkness, the stars were so much more visible. Tonight, their light was completely unparalleled thanks to the absence of the new moon. They glittered across the expanse with a celestial elegance beyond the naked eye, with a limited variety of visible hues: blues, yellows, oranges, and primarily stark white. Valerie wasn't knowledge of astronomy was minimal, so she couldn't place any constellations besides than Orion's belt and the only star she could accurately name was Polaris. Nonetheless, it was still breathtaking, and she could respect why a boy like Danny would chose something this beautiful as his obsession.

"Stars... only exist here, in the real world," Danny whispered. "And God, I missed them so much."

Valerie knew it was getting late, and even though he was harming anyone, Danny eventually had to return to the Ghost Zone. The thought thoroughly depressed her, and she was starting to regret her choices as a ghost hunter. But... what was the real harm in stargazing with this poor boy who had lost _so_ much at such a young age?

"Can we watch the stars a little longer?" she implored, softly, staring back up at the enchanting cosmos with hummed a song of euphoria within her.

Danny's responsive smile was mildly bittersweet.

"We have all the time in the world."


	11. Summoning

Day Twelve: Callback*/Summoning

*Callback is the selection of any previous Phanniemay theme. Summoning is Day 26 for Phanniemay 2016.

Genre: Suspense

Words: 2011

* * *

The three anxious figures sat on the cold, dusty floor of Casper High's basement, eyeing each other warily. They were sitting in a triangular formation, all surrounding a sketchy chalk sigil on the floor lined with sickly, odorous candles purchased from the Skulk and Lurk. The light from the candles cast cryptic shadows onto their faces, intensifying the already abhorrently somber mood.

The first figure of the trio, Lester, spoke first. "A – are we sure we want to this? We don't really know what we're doing here, a – and it might be _really_ dangerous! What if we get hurt or – or-"

"We don't really have a choice," the second one of them, Star, declared boldly. "We screwed up, pretty badly, and according to that weird box man, this 'Ghost King' is the only person who can help us."

"But, we don't know i – if he'll be okay around humans," Lester reasoned. "After all, the last Ghost King invaded the city and sent us all to die in another dimension!"

"I don't like _any_ of this ghost stuff, and I'm gonna be honest: all of you Amity Park people are nuts for sticking around here!" Elliot, previously known as Gregor, seethed. Today, he donned a varsity jacket in lieu of his goth guise. "But... Star's right. We made a big mistake, and even _I_ recognize that what we did was really wrong. So if this King or whatever can help us, I'm in for it."

Star made a 'tsking' noise, "Sorry, Lester. It's two against one. And if we don't do this, what would we have done? Do you really want to live with our screw-up for the rest of your life? It's already bad enough as it is."

"This Ghost King is the only person who can hopefully save us," Elliot agreed.

Lester slid his hand against his face before giving a resigned sigh. "Fine," he said in a small voice. "You guys are sort of right, but you have to admit that there's a _lot_ that could go wrong."

"If something goes wrong, I'm sure Phantom will save us," Star said confidently.

"He's a ghost. Wouldn't he, y'know, have to obey the king too?" Lester argued.

"Guys, stop fighting and let's just do this already!" Elliot proclaimed impatiently.

"Alright," Star resumed. "According to this weird book you had, Elliot, all three of us have to say the incantation at the same time for the summoning to work. I printed out a copy for each of us."

She handed her two accomplices two separate scripts.

"Is this Latin?" Lester squinted at the text. "I don't know if I can even say this."

"Well, practice it under your breath so you don't say it wrong," Elliot deadpanned. "It'd suck to summon the wrong ghost or something from a different dimension."

"Wait, are there different dimensions?" Lester's eyes widened.

"Hell, like I'd know," he rolled his eyes. "I only posed as a goth for a year, I'm not that smart."

The three of them read the incantation a several times in their head until they all felt confident with their recitation. Seeing no reason to further postpone, the trio finally put the final preparation in order to proceed with the summoning.

"Alright," Star said, "we'll all say it on the count of three, agree?"

"Yep," Lester nodded, still visibly nervous.

"Let's get this over with," Elliot groaned.

"Three... two... one..." The three teenagers spoke in perfect unison, _"_ _De industria mortuorum et gratia, qua invocaverimus te petitionem, Ghost King, vocamus tibi de interitiónibus eórum!"_

The first change in the room was very subtle. As soon as they finished the incantation, the temperature slowly plummeted at least ten degrees, before the candles surrounding the chalk sigil on the floor blazed with at least three times more intensity. A gust of air threatened to push each of them backwards, before changing direction and spiraling into a visible funnel of wind in the center of their circle. In the eye of the small cyclone a cluster of green lightning originated, quickly expanding and forking outwards. The trio of teens sat paralyzed at the immense display, and only moved backwards when the lightning flashed rapidly, forming the vague silhouette of a ghost. Slowly, the form of the ghost materialized, and the lightning and wind vanished, leaving only a solid figure in the center of the now dimly lit basement.

Star, Lester, and Elliot were undertaken by unforeseen surprise as the figure made it's identity immediately known. They exchanged equally confused glances when they realized that what they had summoned wasn't a ghost, nor any kind of king, but a seemingly normal human boy. Not just any boy, but their infamously weak classmate, Danny Fenton.

He was crouched down on his knees, wearing a slightly overlarge NASA shirt and tattered jeans. As usual, there were dark circles under his eyes, tainting his unnervingly pale complexion and there were a few spotty bruises along his arms, presumably from Dash Baxter, but none of that was out of the ordinary. All in all, the kid looked a little disoriented, but there was no doubt in the trio's mind that it was still him. And it didn't make sense.

The spell was specifically supposed to summon a ghost, the ghost king himself! And Danny Fenton, who was notoriously afraid of ghosts, was clearly _not_ one! Nothing added up!

"Ugh," Danny groaned, not yet noticing the three boggled teenagers, and apparently talking to himself. "That felt _weird_. That's like the third time this month too..." he looked up from where he'd been 'summoned' and instantly spotted Star, Lester, and Elliot staring at him in perplexed terror.

His expression equally rivaled their state of surprise. "Oh... _shit_. This uh... isn't what it looks like! Uh – how much did you guys... how much do you know? Besides, why are the three of you _together_?"

"We don't owe you any kind of explanation, Fenton!" Elliot spat, defensively. "We were trying to summon the Ghost King and instead we got your freaky ass! So what the hell?!"

"A – are _you_ the Ghost King?" Lester whimpered in fear.

"Fenton's not a ghost, geekwad," Star frowned. "But something is reeeallly wrong here. And Elliot's right, you owe _us_ an explanation, freak!"

"Don't yell at him!" Lester protested. "What if he's dangerous!"

"Danny Fenton is _not_ dangerous! He's just a grade-A loser!"

"But – all the lightning and wind and – and-"

"You're not helping, Lester!"

"Will all of you just SHUT-UP?!" Danny cried. If only for a moment, their smallest fears were confirmed when Danny's eyes glowed a fluorescent green, before subsequently returning back to their normal baby blue. "I... you say you summoned the Ghost King, right?"

All three of them nodded with new-found silent fear.

Danny thoughtlessly rubbed against the back of his neck, "Well I, um, you can't tell anyone about what I'm about to tell you, promise?"

"How do we know you're not gonna lie to us?" Elliot challenged.

"You don't. Unless you can think of something that makes more sense," Danny replied, keeping his composure open. "But, you guys can not, under _any_ circumstances tell anyone. Not Paulina," he looked to Star, "not Mikey," he gestured to Lester, "and you can't post it on the Internet like a douchebag," this was thrown at Elliot. "Oh, and not even my parents can know. _No one_."

"F – fine. Please don't hurt us," Lester pleaded, still convinced Danny was hostile.

"I'm not gonna – oh, whatever," Danny shrugged, seeming unaffected instead of his internal panicked mindset. "Anyway, the thing you absolutely can't tell anyone is that sometimes I help the Ghost King. I know him personally, and I'm sworn to secrecy, so I can't tell you who he is. If my parents ever found out I was connected to some ghost, they would _kill_ me, and for everyone's safety I have to make sure that no civilians know as well. But how it works is..." he paused, coming up with a reasonable story, "I pretend to be afraid of ghosts, but I'm actually just getting more information on them for the Ghost King. You could call me an informant. Like, I just keep tabs on the ghosts that attack the human world like Skulker, Technus, Johnny 13, oh! – and Phantom too."

"Nice story," Elliot crossed his arms. He was pretending not to be scared of Danny, but in truth, everything odd about the boy he'd never noticed was starting to unnerve him, starting with how his eyes had flashed green moments earlier. "But how does that explain the fact that you appeared out of thin air, when you're not even a ghost?"

"Well, the Ghost King can't control if he's summoned or not, but he can send somebody in his place?" Danny answered, weakly. However, the perturbed teenagers didn't notice his slight contending tone and seemed to accept his faulty explanation. "So... uh, why were you trying to summon the Ghost King anyway?"

"You're not him, so why does it matter," Star stated. "He's the only one who can help us with our problem."

"I'm his informant, remember? I can tell him, and then he can help you," Danny said. "I promise. You get it, right, Lester?" he called upon the weakest link of the group.

"Well, uh..." the boy stammered. "It's a p – problem with another g – ghost."

"What kind of problem?" Danny pressed.

"Said her name was Desiree," Elliot explained. "She grants anyone's wishes. And the three of us... sort of made the same wish."

"I know Desiree," he nodded. "Usually the results of her wishes are really obvious. What did she do? What did you wish?"

Lester gulped nervously, while Star and Elliot shared skittish glances.

"Nobody remembers but us," Star began. "There's this kid in our grade, and he's like super annoying. He wouldn't stop asking me out, over and over and over-"

"He humiliated me in front of all my friends because I thought World of Warcraft was a movie series instead of a video game! I'm not a geek, I'm just a nerd. I don't _do_ video games," Lester explained. "But this guy... he just kept rubbing it in my face like he was salting a wound."

"He ruined my chances with your friend, Sam," Elliot growled. "If it wasn't for him sabotaging all our dates with his stupid commentary and gross vibes disrupting our romance, I totally would've gotten her to fall for me."

"Ew," Danny said reflexively. He looked threateningly at Elliot. "Sam's my best-friend, don't talk about her that way."

"Yeah, Elliot," Star hissed, smacking the white-haired boy in the arm. "Shut- _up_. So, where were we?"

"The three of us were running away from a ghost attack," Lester said. "So we hid in this alley together. Thanks to Phantom, we ended up being trapped there for a while because a bunch of debris blocked the exit... and then..." he got a spacey look on his face, "we started talking about how we all hated that guy from school."

"It was an accident," Star said quickly. "We didn't know Desiree was still around! But she heard us and someone said 'I wish' and... and..."

All of them seemed to have trouble to continue the story. Elliot looked down, admittedly ashamed.

"He got wiped completely from existence," Elliot finished quietly. "It's like nobody even remembers he existed. I mean, I didn't like him, but... what we did was practically murder."

The other two remained silent.

"Who was he?" Danny asked, softly. He'd made plenty of mistakes with Desiree before, and if the wish wasn't automatically reversed when she was captured in the thermos, things were usually pretty bad. Not irreversible, but still bad.

Moments later, Star looked at him with teary eyes and gave a reluctant reply.

"His name was Tucker Foley... he was... your best-friend. You have to get him back, _please_ , Danny. Tell the Ghost King to help, we _beg_ you."

Suddenly, things got a lot more complicated.


	12. Swap

Day Thirteen: Swap

Genre: General

Words: 966

* * *

Danny had his ghost powers seven years before Phantom slowly started to influence his human appearance.

He knew that at twenty-one years old, it wasn't very common to grow white hair, so when Sam noticed the gradual discoloration in the back of his hair one day, he acted appropriately. He panicked.

Obviously, his first assumption was that he was slowly becoming more and more ghostly, even in his human form. Was he dying? Was he going full ghost? Were his two forms merging?

He wasn't steered off that train of thought for a while, even when Sam reassured him that the tests his parents did on him guaranteed that his core was stable. She also reminded him that the results concluded that Fenton and Phantom would remain two separate forms and that the only way he would become a full ghost would be dying. And then, Sam proceeded to lecture him on the benefits of _not_ finishing dying early (mostly because she was worried he'd accidentally go off and die because of his recklessness).

But after that, things only got more confusing when Phantom, started growing black hairs in the same place white-hairs appeared on his human form. It was definitely a lot more visible as Phantom too; black hair on white hair had a lot more contrast than white hair on black. And that meant that it wasn't long before his hair problem started attracting the paparazzi, who normally stayed away from him after the chaos following the Disasteroid crisis... unless there was something concrete brewing in the gossip department.

Suddenly, everyone (including himself) was questioning why Phantom had suddenly grown black hairs, and why Fenton had grown white.

And, he still had no answers.

He finally forced his Mom to do more tests on him to clarify that his ghost side was overcoming his human side, and thankfully, that wasn't the situation. He also wasn't dying, so that was good too.

But it still didn't explain _why_ his hair was changing color in both of his forms at a progressively fast rate. After a month after noticing the first few white hairs, the discoloration had reached to the bottoms of his ears. And it didn't look like it was slowly down.

In a hopeless attempt, he tried dying his hair black as Fenton. But, when he transformed into Phantom, nothing had changed with his ghost form. Later that day, he discovered that when he turned back into Fenton, the dye had completely dissipated, only leaving his hair a lot more dry than usual.

He did more tests, only to still have a lack of sensible answers. For Clockwork's sake, he was twenty-one years old and now half of his hair was pure white! Something had to be wrong with him, right? It had to be some kind of error because of his hybrid status. There was no other explanation that he could find appropriate to the circumstances.

By the time his hair had gone white up to his eye level, Danny eventually resigned to his fate and gave up trying to find an explanation. It had been going on for at least eight months, and so far nothing had changed about him besides his hair. Now he would just have to live with the fact that Fenton would have white hair, and Phantom would have black; a basic swap of his two forms. It wasn't preferable, but he supposed it wasn't that big of a change. Thankfully he didn't have a secret identity anymore, because this would've been a _horrible_ reveal.

Danny didn't find out the cause behind his hair problem until after the swap had completely settled, a year after the change had started.

In all of his panicking, he'd always confronted his mother about his worries and the prevalent tests on his ghost half. She was better with the biological side, while his dad was always better with the technological aspect. So, somehow, he had simply avoided talking to his dad about it, and Jack had never really pressed the issue concerning Danny's hair (even though it was blatantly obvious). Until one day, Danny learned _why_.

"I assume you knew," Jack shrugged. "I must have told you at some point, Danno. But my hair turned white starting about my twenties, and so did my dad, and his, and so on. I mean, it didn't happen as rapidly as yours, and I definitely didn't go full white-haired until at least my thirties, but I guess that the ectoplasm in your DNA sped up the rate it happened."

"Wait, so you had full white hair in your _thirties_? Your hair is still partially black though!" Danny said.

"That's because I only dye half of it," Jack explained. "I never really liked the white hair, but I... I always partially dyed my hair black because of what happened to Vladdie all those years ago with his hair. I wanted to not make him feel as isolated. I used to never understand why he didn't dye it, but I suppose from what you've told me, half-ghosts can't really use hair dye, huh?"

"Yeah," Danny groaned. "It sucks. I just want my hair colors to go back to how they were."

"Hey," Jack reassured, "on the bright-side, you still have black hair, just not in human form. You just swapped."

"Yeah, I guess that's true," Danny agreed, realization truly sinking in. Suddenly, he looked back at Jack accusingly, "Also, you're stupid for not telling me. It's been a _year,_ Dad."

Jack had to laugh a little bit. "You never asked!"

"I was so freaked out, it's not funny! Wait a minute..." Danny paused, remembering something else, "does mom not know that you dye your hair?"

"Uh..." he shifted nervously, "can you _not_ tell your mother this?"

" _Dad_!"


	13. Flowers

Day Fourteen: Flowers

Genre: Humor

Words: 1886

* * *

After the entire world almost got destroyed by a ghostly asteroid in the previous school year, interest in ghosts skyrocketed within the students of Casper High. Especially with the enigma that was Danny Fenton/Phantom, Amity's very own half-ghost, world-renowned, teenage superhero. So starting first semester of Danny's Junior year, Casper High managed to create a new, mandatory Ectology 101 class for all students.

And unfortunately for him, Danny could not get excused from taking the class. Even worse, he was isolated from his two best-friends, so it was even more excruciating. So, when he finally had to take it, he would normally sit as far as he could in the back, ignoring the constant glances his classmates would throw towards him. He'd also have to talk his way out of answering many questions concerning his personal biology and knowledge concerning ghosts.

You don't know true discomfort when all of a sudden everybody starts debating on whether or not the ghostly method of core reproduction was applicable to Danny and if he could even have children. Needless to say, Danny dreaded the class.

Somewhere around the fourth month into the class, the teacher brought in a certified ghost-expert from somewhere in California to do a guest-presentation about the various natural defenses against ghosts. The class dragged on as usual, but instead of their normal teacher, they had some wannabe ghost 'hunter' who knew nothing about the culture of Amity Park. Go figure, he didn't even react to Danny's presence in the classroom, meaning that he didn't recognize him as Phantom. _Thank God,_ Danny thought, _the last thing I need is another expert putting their hands all over me, trying to figure out why I'm the way I am._

"This," said the presenter, a tall, blond man named Mr. Simmons, "is a plant called 'Stachys officinalis', better known as betony. Traditionally, people in the Middle Ages planted it in churchyards and wore amulets of it to ward-off evil ghosts. But in modern ghost hunting, it's a practical defense to keep ghosts away. In fact, if there was a ghost in this room right now, it would feel immense pain and be forced to leave!"

The class collectively looked back at Danny with caution, who was sitting in his seat unimpressed. A few people snorted at Mr. Simmons's clear lack of credibility and collectively decided to just ignore the ignorant man. He had never been to Amity Park, so he didn't know a thing about actual ghost hunting.

"This next natural herb," Mr. Simmons fished out another plastic bag, with a bright, yellow, star-shaped flower with blue tips, "is called 'Campanula xanthostella', more commonly known as ghost nip. If you are familiar with cat nip, this would be the equivalent of that for ghosts. It's very useful when you want to distract or lure ghosts into a trap, because it acts pretty much like a ghost drug."

As Mr. Simmons held up the bag for the entire class to see, Danny's eyes immediately locked on to the vibrant flower, and everything else was lost to him. His peripheral vision dimmed into the background as the ghost nip became the center of his attention. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he recognized that this was a weird reaction to some flower, but he ignored it. It looked so captivating... enchanting, almost. It called to him from across the room like a siren pulling weary sailors towards a lethal barricade of rocks, and nothing else mattered. He _wanted_ it. It was just so... alluring. It should've been illegal how much he wanted that radiant flower.

The stupid blond man waved the bag around some more and continued to speak in a dull, monotonous tone. All Danny could focus on was the flower, and his eyes followed it's every movement. There was still that part of him that was hesitant to the ghost nip's tantalizing glamour, but he instinctively pushed down that screaming voice of human reason in his head. _The flower_ was all that mattered. He felt blessed just being able to gaze upon it, yet there was still his desire to hold it within his own hands, to feel it's soft petals, to smell it. Oh, how he longed to breathe in it's delicious scent, to inhale it's exquisite fragrance.

His expression faded in to one of passive bliss as he refrained from thinking about anything but the majestic flower being dangled in front of him. His eyes were small lamps of green as the ghost within him itched to possess the flower. It was so close to being within his grasp... yet he couldn't bring himself to move, so he admired it from afar.

Kwan, who was sitting across from him, noticed Danny's faraway look and glowing green eyes. Confused, Kwan tentatively nudged Danny's shoulder. "Uhh... are you alright, dude?" Danny gave no response. "Fenton...?"

Kwan, who was starting to be concerned, leaned over and waved his hand in front of Danny's face, who swatted him away so he could stare dreamily at the flower some more. He didn't _need_ such irritating distractions. Couldn't they see the flower's mesmerizing beauty?

When he realized what was wrong with Danny, Kwan paled. "Um... guys?" he addressed the rest of the class, solidly interrupting Mr. Simmons (who no one was listening to in the first place). "I think the ghost nip is affecting Danny."

The class's attention was instantly drawn back to Danny who was still blankly staring at the ghost nip. Some people quietly laughed under their breath, while others looked at Danny with something akin to empathy or pity. Their regular teacher was out of the room, so when all the students directed their attention to Danny, Mr. Simmons didn't know how to react.

At first when Kwan said the ghost nip was affecting the misty eyed boy, Mr. Simmons dismissed it as a teenage joke, because the ghost nip obviously couldn't affect humans. So, reasonably unconcerned and assuming Danny was just fooling around, Mr. Simmons continued his lecture.

"Unless you have a serious inquiry," Mr. Simmons spoke, "please remain silent during my presentation, boys. I don't tolerate tasteless humor."

The students gaped at Mr. Simmons. How could he look at Danny and _not_ see something was wrong? His eyes were literally _glowing_ and he was in some sort of hypnotic trance.

A petite girl in the front row attempted to explain to the oblivious man. "Look, you don't understand, he's actually-"

"That'll be all about this topic," Mr. Simmons replied, in a harsh tone, not even allowing her to get a meaningful word in. "Now, if you can all take it seriously, I'll be allowing you all to pass the flower around to see what it looks like. Be very delicate with it, it's very rare and difficult to obtain."

When everyone realized what he was about to do, the class reacted almost immediately. Mr. Simmons quickly opened the ziplock bag with the ghost nip, and all hell broke lose.

Several students tried to warn him not to open it, but it was too late. When the aromatic smell of the sweet flower hit the air, Danny finally surrendered control. The flower was simply too bewitching to resist any longer, and _God how he wanted it, that scent was just_ irresistible. It smelled nothing like he had ever smelled before. It was like honey and vanilla, but also the sickly smell of rain at night and fresh cut flowers, and so many other indecipherable layers that blended into one aroma of ecstasy. It rung even more loudly in his mind now: that flower had to be _his_.

His classmates watched helplessly as the ghost boy slowly stood up, and like a marionette, he unconsciously glided across the floor with his sense of control forfeited. His attention belonged to the flower in all of it's magnificence. Mr. Simmons stared at Danny suspiciously as he approached the man loosely gripping the bag with the flower.

 _That's_ my _flower_ , Danny thought possessively.

Danny didn't register his actions, but as he grew closer and closer to the ghost nip, he finally lost his last shred of control. His human formed slipped from him, and he transformed into Phantom in the center of the classroom as he approached his flower, his beautiful flower. It made him feel so... at ease. It was precious.

Of course, he didn't notice how Mr. Simmons dropped the bag in complete shock having witnessed Danny's transformation. Instead, Danny tore the bag from the air and instantly held it to his face, breathing in even more of the sirenic scent. He was in heaven, this washeaven. Nothing in his existence could ever be more pleasurable than this moment.

His classmates, for the most part, tried to talk him out of it, to no avail. Mr. Simmons feebly used the teacher's desk to support his weight as he tried to regain from his momentary mental breakdown that he'd been in the same room as Danny Phantom, didn't even realize it, and had accidentally drugged him in the process. _What the hell?_

* * *

Meanwhile, there was an alert in Principal Ishiyama's office. For legal purposes, Danny wasn't prohibited to use any of his powers on campus, unless there was an impending ghost attack at hand. There were sensors located all over the school to log any use of Danny's ghost powers, so if he fully transformed or even turned partially invisible, Ishiyama would know immediately. There was a second program that tracked the ectosignatures of any enemy ghosts, that way if there was an attack, she would know, and not be concerned about Danny breaking the rules.

However, the alert in her office had just notified her that Danny had transformed without the presence of a ghostly enemy, so naturally she was required to make sure that he wasn't violating the school's power-restricting policy.

Dropping her current paperwork, Principal Ishiyama quickly made her way down to the Ectology 101 Classroom to assess the situation. And when she arrived... things weren't pretty.

Danny Phantom was surrounded by a few pleading classmates in a corner of the classroom, thoughtlessly sniffing a flower with wide, dazed green eyes. The class's guest speaker had helplessly sprawled himself over a desk and appeared incapacitated. Ishiyama turned her attention back to Danny, who smiled absently, appearing deliriously entranced, which indicated that he was at least somewhat high. (She'd found enough crackheads in the parking lot to know the look.) She was relieved that he didn't seem to be aware of his actions, but was nonetheless confused about how this particular predicament had occurred.

She looked to a bunch of idle students watching the scene unfold with an almost apathetic fascination. "Explain," she addressed them strictly. "What's wrong with him?"

"It's uh... ghost nip," a boy answered, meekly. "We tried telling Mr. Simmons not to uh... open the bag, but he didn't listen, and then Danny just sort of... yeah."

"Dear Lord," Ishiyama said. "Like _cat nip_? A ghost drug? Why would he knowingly...?" she looked over at the pathetic man who was still passed out on the desk. "Ugh, nevermind," the principal sighed. "I'm calling Maddie and Jack. Hopefully, they can deal with this mess. Because, I sure as hell don't get paid enough for this job."


	14. Girls

Day Fifteen: Girls

Genre: Family/Angst

Words: 3095

* * *

Even long after both of them had grown up, the two sisters confessed their shameful wrongs to each other, trading dirty secrets like a pair of naive little girls. In a way, it kept them close to each other, filling the physical distance between them in their hearts. It was a tradition that began when they were respectively five and six years old, back in their old, creaky bedroom at the country house in Missouri.

Madeline, who was evidently the youngest, had gotten lost in the woods behind their house one day, and was stranded alone for six hours before anyone found her. When Maddie was found, she was lying back against a tree, eyes closed, and fingers nestled in the damp dirt. Her parents were relieved she was okay, and besides warning her from wandering into the woods again, they didn't think twice about the occasion.

Ever since that day Maddie had night terrors, but no one but her elder sister, Alicia knew. Usually around midnight, Maddie would start shaking in her bed, sweat pouring down the little girl's small frame, and she would soon awake in tears. At that point, Alicia would leave her own bed, and crawl under the covers with Maddie, whispering words of reassurance to her younger sister. Alicia never asked what the dreams were about, she simply comforted Maddie until the two of them would fall back into a lull of warm, tender sleep, relishing in their childhood innocence.

However, about a month after the incident in the woods, Maddie confessed to Alicia what had truly happened that day. The two girls sat on their wooden, bedroom floor, both pretending to act quite serious for a pair of typically devious sisters.

"So what happened?" Alicia asked Maddie. "You said there was more to what happened than ya just gettin' lost."

"It sounds... silly," Maddie warned. "But, there was this little shadow that whispered to me, tellin' me to follow her into the woods."

"A shadow?" Alicia questioned. "What'd'ya mean a shadow?"

"Like... a shape of something, only it's not really there, and it's dark. That's what shadows are, right?"

"I dunno," Alicia said. "But I'd never heard of a shadow that can talk."

"It _did_ talk, though," Maddie stressed. "And – and it showed me the way to this really pretty tree, and it told me that it was in the ground."

"Of course the tree was in the ground," Alicia deadpanned. "That's sort of obvious."

"No," Maddie corrected. "The shadow took me to a tree, and then told me that the _shadow_ was in the ground. It's... the shadow's real body."

"Now that doesn't make no sense," Alicia said.

"I tried to feel it in the ground..." Maddie whispered, leaning closer towards Alicia, "and I think I saw what the shadow really looked like before it was a shadow. It was... this cat."

Alicia looked slightly perturbed. "How can the shadow be a cat?"

"That's just it," Maddie said grimly. "I don't think it was a shadow; I think it was a ghost."

"Ghosts aren't real, Maddie. They're just stories."

"But this _was_ real," Maddie protested. "I just know it! And it was creepy too. And I – I – I can't stop dreaming about it. And then I remember the shadow is the cat, and if the shadow is the cat, then the cat must've died... and that..." she sniffled a little bit, "that tree was a grave."

"Maddie, you're only five, you don't need to be thinking about this stuff. None of it's real at all, you can trust me. Besides, I'm your sister, if there's someone you can trust, it should be me. Not some weird not even real shadow you thought you saw."

Maddie frowned. "It just... felt so real, though, Ally. I don't know how to stop thinking about it."

"You will," Alicia promised. "With time."

* * *

Over the years, the continued their rituals on their bedroom floor, igniting the other with secrets. After Maddie's confession about the shadow cat, she didn't talk to Alicia about ghosts for a very long time, even though the experience always lingered somewhere in the back of her mind. She wanted to forget it, but something about it just struck her as intriguing, despite the traumatic context of the memory. She decided that she would return to thinking about the shadow one day, and find sufficient answers.

When the Alicia started middle school, they eventually stopped their secret confessing tradition, electing to go their separate ways rather than be the inseparable duo they'd been all throughout childhood. Alicia made lots of new friends at their middle school, while Maddie devoted herself more to her studies, appeasing her parents' critical expectation for success out of at least one of their daughters. It wasn't until Maddie's Sophomore year of High School when Alicia desperately asked Maddie to let her confess a secret that she needed off of her chest.

"I – I did something _really_ bad," Alicia started. "Like, I don't know how I'm gonna live with myself after this, Mads. If anyone ever found out, I am _over_. Mom and Dad might even disown me, it's that bad. I can't even... can't even process what I did..."

"What was it that you did?" Maddie asked, carefully. She had known Alicia was serious from the start, and with every passing second the feeling of somberness grew heavier in the air.

"About a month ago," Alicia said in a small voice, shame seeping into her words, "I found out I was pregnant. And I... didn't want the baby, and I didn't want Mom and Dad, and even the father to know about it. So I... I did... I can't even say it," she wiped a few tears from her face. "I've never felt so bad about something in my life. I... ki – killed it, Mads. Just so I didn't have to be a mother. I'm... _disgusting_."

Maddie was silent with horror as she processed Alicia's confession. Something that... inhumane sickened her to her core; taking an innocent life because one was unprepared to nurture it. Irresponsible. Murder. Yet, this was her sister, and she could understand _why_ she did it. It made sense logically, since Alicia truly _wasn't_ in a place to be a mother, at all. Putting her personal disdain aside, Maddie reached out to comfort Alicia's self-inflicted guilt.

They were more than girls, yet this was just another one of their tiny, little secrets.

* * *

Maddie was in college when she called Alicia on the phone, almost indecipherable through her sobs. After graduating, Alicia had moved to Arkansas with her boyfriend and they had bought a farm together, while Maddie pursued an outlandish childhood inquiry in Wisconsin with her two friends, Jack and Vlad. The last the sisters had heard from each other, they were both happy. But now, Maddie called Alicia was news of guilt and tragedy.

" _I_ put him in the hospital, Alicia. _I_ did it! Vlad's life will never be the same because _I_ pressed him to help us on this overrated experiment to some dimension that might now even exist. I can't even visit him, I'm so guilty about it. He probably hates me now, and he has every right to! God... this is just a mess. I'm sorry I'm bothering you about this, these are all my problems."

"Stop right there Madeline," Alicia demanded. "You are _my_ Goddamn sister, and I will always be here to listen and support you, no matter what."

"That means a lot," Maddie hiccuped. "But I still don't know what I'm going to do... Jack says he sent a get-well card to him, but that just feels so impersonal. I should go see him, right? It's been over two weeks... and according to the doctors he's just not recovering. And it's still, undoubtedly, my fault..."

"Look," Alicia said, "from what I gather from this, you feel guilty to go see him, yet you still want to help him because you're his friend and the person who did this?"

"Y – yeah," Maddie replied, quietly.

"Then how about you try to help the doctors cure him? He was infected with your device, and if he isn't getting better, it's because of that thing. You and Jack are the only ones who know anything about it, so if you can figure out where you went wrong with that portal-whatsit, then maybe you can get Vlad out of the hospital."

"It's not that easy, Alicia," Maddie said.

"You're Madeline Ann McMurtrey. You can do anything if you put your mind to it, and it's a realistic way to help Vlad out of the hospital and to relieve you of your guilt." Alicia paused. "Besides, you should stop saying everything is your fault. If Vlad didn't also want to work on the portal, he would've have been there. All three of you knew there were hazards, didn't you?"

"I suppose... yeah, we did," Maddie admitted.

"There. While you can say some of it is your fault, it's not _all_ your fault."

"I guess that's fair," Maddie nodded. "You actually did make me feel better, Alicia. Thank you."

Alicia smiled, "That's what sisters are for. I gotta look out for my girl."

* * *

Many years later, after Maddie had graduated college, married, and given birth to Danny and Jazz, ages three and five, Alicia called Maddie with another confession.

"Mads," Alicia said, shakily, "I don't know if I can stay in this marriage anymore."

"Why not?" Maddie asked. She had sensed for a while now things were tense between them, because every time Alicia spoke with Maddie she blatantly avoided talking about her marriage. The last time she had spoken with her sister was Christmas, and even then she neglected to mention her husband.

"I... oh, it's bad, Maddie. I'm just not... attracted to him anymore. We fight all the time and..." she took a shuddering breath, speaking quietly as possible into the phone, "I think I might like women."

"Oh," Maddie said, taken completely off guard. Of all the reasons for her sister to want a divorce, she hadn't seen that one. Sure, she had always been more... rugged than most girls, more tough. But so had Maddie, they both grew up in the south and were strong, independent women. She had never looked past that within her sister, but looking back, some things made some sense.

In Alicia's teenage years she would fool around with boys, but it always seemed like she was forcing herself into relationships for no evident reason. Like, she forced herself to love someone else because it's what society expected of her... And it was shockingly clear that only half of Alicia's heart had been in the best of her relationships, but Maddie had just assumed that was Alicia's rebel streak, her sense of self reliance. But apparently not. Maddie was enlightened to a different side of Alicia, the side that only acquainted with men because it was what was supposed to be 'right', not what she felt within herself.

Maddie could empathize with that fear of going against the normal standard, it's why she didn't pursue her passion in ghost research until she had moved out and enrolled in college. After all, you cannot engage your passion until you've denied it, thus testing it's strength.

Maddie made up her mind a laughed a little bit. She had to be accepting of Alicia, downplay her shock, "Is that it? You had me worried, Alicia, I thought you were going to tell me he was abusive or something."

"Mads, this is serious, I don't – I don't know what I even want anymore. Mom and Dad always said that-"

"Mom and Dad said a lot of things," Maddie said. "It doesn't mean they're true. After all, I'm their biggest disappointment, remember? Instead of an engineer or a doctor I pursued ectology. Our parent's views on life are outdated, so don't let them get to you. There's nothing _wrong_ with you, Alicia. You just have a different preference, and that's okay. You've tried to see if being with a man is your taste, and now you can say it's not. What's wrong with that?"

Alicia was silent on the other side of the call, until she sniffled, "Thanks, Mads. I needed that. I _really_ needed that. You don't know how much..."

"Nobody should have to refuse their identity if they can help it," Maddie told her sister, keeping an optimistic tone.

* * *

For a long time, Maddie thought she believed that statement. However, roughly eleven years later, she learned she was wrong, and perhaps blind to the true consequences of having to hide your true self. And it was all because of her previously unashamed prejudice against ghosts, which she was forced to reconsider.

Alicia received Maddie's call sometime around two in the morning, instantly sending an immediate wave of fear into the older sister. Maddie would never call so late deliberately, so that must mean that it's some sort of emergency. In the four seconds before she picked up the phone, Alicia braced herself for a worst case scenario: major injury, chronic disease, possibly even a death. She was ill prepared when Maddie immediately started rambling through choked sobs.

"Alicia, I – I – I don't know what I did," Maddie cried. "Danny – he – he wasn't supposed to... wasn't supposed to-" her voice cracked and she broke off into a rage of tears.

"Mads, what happened with Danny?" she asked softly. She hadn't been around her nephew much, but it had been a pleasant surprise when he and Jazz had flown in months ago to meet up with their parents for her tenth divorceversary. Even though she didn't know much about Danny, she still cared for him nonetheless, and cared for Maddie's welfare even more.

Slowly, Maddie's cries lessened, and she replied in a small, slightly delirious voice.

"He wasn't supposed to be him. Anyone... but him," Maddie muttered, incoherently.

"Maddie," Alicia said, carefully, "you're not making any sense."

"I – I know," she gulped. "I just need to talk to someone. And I – I can't talk to anyone else. You've always been my go to girl for support, Alicia. And I've done something beyond forgiveness. So... unforgivable..."

"Nothing is unforgivable," Alicia reasoned.

"What I did was," Maddie countered. "I _hurt_ my child, Ally. Danny... is hurt because... of me. Just like Vlad was. It's always me. I keep hurting everyone important to me! There's something _wrong_ with me!"

"What do you mean you hurt Danny?" Alicia asked, on edge. She noticed Maddie hadn't called her Ally since they were little kids.

"He was a ghost... and then he wasn't. He was... we captured him, as a – a – _specimen_ -" she choked, "-and then... there was so much blood. We kept... kept... testing and all we saw was the ghost... until he passed out and..." Maddie gave a strangled cry, "Then he was my baby, and he was bleeding everywhere."

Alicia's fear instantly increased tenfold, as she struggled to make sense of Maddie's faulty explanation. "Are you saying you... experimented on Danny? On purpose?"

"No! Yes, but no! We didn't know it was him... we didn't know... should've known... all my fault... always _my_ fault. He still hasn't woken up and – and-"

"Maddie, you're gonna have to start at the beginning," Alicia said. "Why did you do... experiment, on Danny?"

"We didn't on _him_!" Maddie protested helplessly. "It was Phantom! Danny was him! And... God, why him?"

"Please, Maddie, you're talking yourself into circles, you need to calm down. Please, just start from the beginning. I'm not understanding. Take a few breaths first," she added.

Maddie heeded Alicia's advice and breathed heavily into the phone, regaining some temperance.

"I know you never believed in the ghosts..." Maddie started, "but they've been coming out of our portal for months, not long after we visited you last. There's been this one ghost, who's frequented Amity more often than the others, yet he's the hardest to catch. Phantom. And tonight... we caught him off guard, and brought him to the lab for a procedure. Ghosts aren't... supposed to... _pain_. And – and so we did things to him, basic dissection, nothing too intrusive for a being that's already dead. But Phantom... was Danny. My son... according to Jazz – who's known the entire time! – has two identities. And he's human, yet he can turn into a ghost. And when we experimented on his ghost, we hurt Danny, the human, underneath... Alicia, do you understand now? I _hurt_ my child, irreversibly. He'll never forgive me. Nothing will ever... be the same. How can I even face him, knowing that I've torn him apart from the inside, that I'm the reason he'll have dissection scars for the rest of his life?"

Alicia was speechless. Even when explained, she couldn't understand. How could someone be both a human and a ghost? And... how could something like this even happen in the first place? What kind of messed up life had her sister's family been living? What could Alicia even say to help fix this irreparable situation? This was something out of a horror film, a mother unknowingly experimenting on her own child, and almost instantly Alicia felt sick. She grieved for Maddie, and longed to offer words of support, but there were none.

When Alicia didn't answer, Maddie continued her self-diatribe, "Who even expects their son to be a ghost, Alicia? When did I ever get this screwed up?"

"I don't know much of the details, Maddie," Alicia said, "and there's a lot more I don't know, and I want everything to be okay, but I don't know what to tell you. But... if things get worse, you're always welcome at my place. We're girls who look out for each other... and if it's not you that needs a temporary escape, I – I know we've never been close, but I'll extend my offer to Danny, too. If either of you need away from each other, for healing, my doors are always open."

This time, neither sister had an answer. But, until Maddie's living nightmare was alleviated, no answer would suffice. This was between Maddie's family, and Alicia prayed that her sister would work everything out in the end, like she always did. But, if the worst did come to play, Alicia McMurtrey could definitely keep a secret.

Because trading secrets and giving advice are what girls do, regardless of age.


	15. Gift

Day Sixteen: Gift

Genre: Hurt/Comfort

Words: 2146

Everything was numb. Danny still couldn't register what had happened or where he was, but the scariest sensation was the tingling feeling of absolutely nothing. There was no temperature, no texture, no light... Until slowly, everything started to come back to him. He could feel he was lying on something semi-comfortable and that the air around him was pleasurably cool, just how he liked it. He might've believed that he was in his own bedroom if it wasn't the sound of faint beeping somewhere to the left of his head.

That's right, wasn't it? A heart monitor. He was in the hospital. How had he gotten here, and what about his secret? Why was it taking longer for the memory of the past few days to return? He knew something had happened...

He needed to be more awake to remember, and he didn't want to wake up. He was comfortable as he was now, but as soon as he addressed the need to remember, his body forced him awake. And that was the end of his blissful comfort and ignorance.

The memories didn't come in a series of flashbacks or anything that melodramatic. It was like there was a switch in his brain that instantly just allowed him to recall the events of the previous few days.

There had been a new ghost that was particularly hard to beat. He was only just a cyclops, but his brute strength and unexpected agility were almost overwhelming, so it was near impossible to get him in the thermos. Danny had fought him several times over the week, sustaining a few minor injuries, but Danny still convinced himself that he just needed to learn the ghost's weakness and he could easily take him down. After all, he had learned to beat most of his effortless ghost battles by playing trial and error. However, Danny slipped up. When he fought the cyclops again, he had prepared for one opponent, not two. This time, the Red Huntress was there too, shooting at Danny while the cyclops tried to punch him hard enough to send him flying to the other side of town.

Danny was only able to hold up for so long while fighting both of them. He had managed to dodge a super-powered punch from the cyclops, only for Valerie to shoot him out of the sky, causing him to crash to the ground in a street full of people. Danny's memory was slightly hazy after the fall, but he continued to attempt to fight... until the cyclops had targeted a nearby group of elementary children instead... and Danny threw himself in the way. Valerie, prioritizing the civilians over her ghostly foe, put her attack on hold and decided to clear the children out of the way. Meanwhile, the cyclops had grabbed him and slammed him into the concrete... over and over and over again until suddenly he was human and everything was bleeding and the people on the street began to panic even more. He expected to pass out after that, but instead, the cyclops had used some sort of energy transference power to keep Danny awake a while longer and in conscious agony.

Danny had watched with horror as his parents had arrived on the scene with the news reporters, only for the cyclops to go in for the final blow, and threw him with full force in the Fenton GAV, instantly rendering him unconscious.

That was the last thing he remembered before waking up, and he realized with fear that his secret truly was... over. Everyone had seen him. Everyone now knew his true nature.

And rather than being concerned about the possible outcomes of being reduced to a government research specimen or being dissected by his own parents, all Danny could focus on was the fact that his secret had been exposed by a one-eyed freak and his vengeful ex-girlfriend. It was actually kind of funny, in a pathetic way, if that made sense.

He still wasn't prepared for his secret to be out to the world, and thinking about it too much would probably send him into a mental breakdown, but he was awake now. And all that was left was opening his eyes. This was his last moment of denial; the last moment he could convince himself that everything would be like it had been for the past year. His secret was in plain view now, and it was time for him to face his scary new reality.

With slow hesitation, Danny opened his eyes.

Nothing would be the same.

His injuries were severe enough to keep him in the hospital for two weeks. And he hated every moment of it. He was sick of being stuck in bed, with the same skittish nurses and doctors who avoided talking about his freaky ghost biology as much as possible. He tried telling them that it was okay to talk to him about what they didn't understand, but they seemed too uncomfortable (or scared) to bring it up.

Not long after he had woken up, he had confronted his parents, with the support of his sister, Jazz. After a long discussion, his parents accepted him for the most part, however, everyone was still tense from all the secret keeping, and it would take some time to recover from Danny's betrayal of trust. He also made sure that they didn't still want to experiment on him, and they were horrified when he brought it up, so that was also a good sign.

His parents had honestly been the scariest obstacle, which oddly replenished his confidence in an unexpected way. Danny figured that if his ghost-hating family could accept him, it shouldn't be too hard for the general public to see that he wasn't some evil abomination of nature. Or, at least he hoped.

Sam and Tucker were there every day in the hospital, and after about the fifth day, he gave permission for people outside of his family to visit him. However, he made it clear that only people that he approved, would be able to see him, he didn't want to end up with a bunch of rabid fans or threatening haters. He also specified that he would only talk to reporters from Channel 7, because they were the only local channel that didn't regularly turn Phantom into a villain and promote negative gossip.

Danny was surprised that the first person that visited him outside of his family was actually Mr. Lancer. It was actually sort of comedic, because Danny couldn't remember a single instance where his English teacher had ever appeared more awkward. Yet, when Lancer entered Danny's hospital room the man was at a complete loss for words, but he still managed to get his point across. He actually _apologized_ to Danny, which was a lot more than Danny expected, because he had assumed that he would have to be the one to apologize to Mr. Lancer. Though, while Mr. Lancer didn't understand how Danny was the way he was, he understood what drove him to neglect school and respected him for sacrificing his reputation and grades for something beyond what he should be responsible. Actually, when Mr. Lancer promised that they would find a solution for Danny to balance both school and ghosts, that was when Danny started to suspect that maybe losing his secret was a good thing.

His next visitor, a day after Lancer's visit, was someone Danny had expected to see sooner or later, which he didn't know whether to dread or welcome.

Valerie peeked her head inside Danny's hospital door tentatively, clearly nervous, and almost jumped when Danny stared back at her. From her skittish behavior, Danny was still unable to discern whether she was about to angrily scream at him, or cry regretfully into his arms. Either reaction would've made sense, but instead, she regained her stature, and walked into the room with a neutral expression on her face.

"Hello, Danny," she said normally. They both knew that she was acting right now, concealing her true emotions about the moment.

"Hey, Val," he responded. He didn't know what to say, so he decided to play it simple. "You can sit down if you want," he gestured to the chair next to his bed, "but I get it if you're more comfortable standing."

She pursed her lips momentarily, before turning to sit in the chair in silence. He noticed that she was wearing an unfamiliar satchel around her shoulders, but didn't comment. He would let her speak next. Since he was unable to read her current impression of him, he was awfully afraid of saying the wrong thing to her.

"Are you like... dead?" she finally asked, in an uncharacteristically quiet voice.

Danny was taken by surprise at her bluntness, but didn't let it affect his answer. "Uh... no. Well, sort of. I'm just half-dead. My heart still beats, and I still breathe, but I have all the powers of a ghost."

"And you've always been Phantom? Even when you destroyed my father's job?" she asked. It was an accusing question, but she said it perfectly calm. Her voice was devoid of any malice or resentment, but there was something unclear hidden behind her eyes that suggested otherwise.

"Well, I haven't always been Phantom, but Phantom has always been me, yes," Danny nodded. "And I really didn't mean to get your dad fired! I was trying to capture that dog ghost, but when I had first started out ghost hunting, I didn't really know how to minimize damage control... so it really _was_ unintentional. I would never go out of my way to ruin someone's life, especially your life."

"I guess... I can understand that," Valerie resigned. "Everyone starts out messy. But you still have a lot of other mistakes to answer to. Not to mention, you've lied to everyone and _purposely_ messed with my emotions. But, I'm all ears, ghost-boy."

Danny wasn't sure when she called him 'ghost-boy', if it was supposed to be a joking nickname, or an intentional insult. Valerie seemed cordial, but he from what he had gathered, Danny knew that this conversation was her way of determining on whether or not she forgave him or not. This would determine the future of their relationship as either friends, or foes. He had to do his best to tell the truth, but to also not paint himself in a negative light.

For the next half hour, Danny explained specific incidents, while Valerie questioned him. It was almost like he was on trial, and in a way, this was Valerie's court. She was the judge of whether or not he was innocent or guilty. He explained in more detail about his encounter with Cujo, their flour sack project, Pariah's invasion, and when Technus had eased them into dating.

By the end of the conversation, Valerie actually seemed accepting of him (both hims), which relieved Danny exponentially. They were actually laughing and making jokes... and all the tension had been sapped out of the air. And his heart swelled when she actually confirmed it.

"I still have some grudges," she admitted, "but for the most part, you're forgiven, Danny."

She opened her satchel, and rummaged around until she found a red Tupperware container. "I... uh, made you a gift," she said. "They're brownies. I didn't know if I was going to give them to you, but I'm glad we've made up."

"Wait," Danny said, " _really_?"

She nodded in confirmation.

"Oh my God," he grinned, "you don't know what kind of food they've been feeding me here. Thank you _so_ much. This is a literal blessing, like... I need this. I haven't eaten anything solid since I've gotten here."

She laughed, "Well, they're my special recipe, so I hope you enjoy them."

When Valerie walked out of the hospital room, she stopped in the hallway and took out the second container out of her satchel. She had made two batches of brownies, and would've given him one as a gift no matter what. One batch was normal, while the other contained bits of Blood Blossoms. Thankfully, Valerie had actually believed Danny's explanation, and felt like she had been a _little_ ridiculous when she had walked into the room earlier with the potential intent of giving him brownies laced with Blood Blossoms. But since she had found Danny innocent, she had given him the normal batch.

Still in the hallway, she opened the remaining container of brownies and decided to have one herself. She slowly bit into a brownie and almost spit it out when she realized that there was a noticeable lack of Blood Blossoms in the brownie she had just eaten. Her stomach spun dangerously when she finally came to the horrifying revelation that she had screwed up _majorly_.

She had given Danny the wrong batch of brownies.


	16. Royalty

Day Seventeen: Royalty

Genre: Adventure

Words: 2604

* * *

There was something different in Amity Park and Maddie Fenton was going to get to the bottom of it.

It had only become noticeable recently, but the frequency of ghost attacks had decreased. All of a sudden, there were less and less threatening ghosts coming into the town to wreak havoc. Overall, that was a good thing, and Maddie couldn't really complain, she just couldn't figure out _why_ there were less ghosts. She was afraid it was some sort of indication that something bad was about to happen in the human world, so the ghosts had fled for self-preservation. It was a phenomena observed in animals in moments before natural disasters, like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, so who said the same thing couldn't be said about ghosts?

So, with professional interest, Maddie embarked on her investigation to divulge information from the ghosts who still lingered around town. Her first target was a well-known specter with too much ego and loose lips when provided with the correct threats.

"I AM THE BOX GHOST!"

Maddie aimed her blaster, allowing it to audibly charge up as a warning. She wasn't intended to actually shoot him, but wanted to give off the impression that she was. After all, she needed this specimen for information. And as expected, the ghost immediately grew silent upon noticing her weapon, subjecting to her will.

"Tell me why I shouldn't shoot you right here, ghost," she spat venomously. In an interrogation, it was always important to clarify who was in charge.

The ghost's expression wavered, but he still attempted to maintain superiority. "YOU CANNOT SHOOT THE _BOX GHOST_! Beware!"

"Wanna bet?" Maddie shot her weapon slightly to the left of the ghost, causing him to yelp in fear. Before he could flee, she grabbed a pair of ectocuffs from her belt and put one around her wrist, and the other on the ghost's. He couldn't escape her now.

"What're you-"

"I need information," she told him. "And I won't let you go until you give me all that I need. If you don't tell me anything, I'll shoot you. Deal?"

"You can't do that!" the Box Ghost declared.

" _Right_. It's not like you're already handcuffed to me."

The ghost sputtered indignantly before finally surrendering. Or, at least the Box Ghost's version of surrendering. "Fine! I will burden you with my fearsome knowledge that you beg for!"

Maddie narrowed her eyes, "Why have there been less ghosts in the human world?"

"Uhh... what?" he asked.

"For the past three weeks or so there has been a noticeable lack of ghosts attack Amity Park. You're a ghost, you tell me why."

"Well..." the ghost stalled, "I'm still in the human world, so maybe I don't _know_ why."

Maddie frowned and moved her blaster closer to the Box Ghost's torso. "I can still shoot you since you're not telling me the truth."

"That is the truth. Please don't hurt me, y – your grace," he whimpered.

"My what?" Maddie asked.

"Nothing!" The Box Ghost said, eyes widening with panic.

"Tell me, _now_ ," she hissed. She made sure to make a show of putting her finger around the trigger. He would crack any moment now.

"Fine! Fine... The new Ghost King has decreed that harming Amity Park is forbidden."

"New Ghost King?" Maddie asked. "Why is there a new king?"

"Well the old one was defeated, so there obviously has to be a new one. Will you let me go now? Please?"

"No," she said. "Why did this new king decide the human world is off limits? Don't most ghosts want to invade us?"

"The King isn't most ghosts," the Box Ghost said solemnly. "He's hardly even a ghost... It's a wonder how he's qualified."

"You're avoiding my question, do you know why he wants to keep ghosts out of Amity Park? Is there any ulterior motive?" she stressed the last part.

"The king empathizes more with humans than ghosts," Box Ghost answered with disdain. "It makes him a lame ruler because all he wants to do is make sure we stay in the Ghost Zone. It's not fair since he..." he froze, as if remembering something important. "Nevermind."

Maddie wondered what sort of ghost would empathize more with humans than with it's own kind, and was suddenly very intrigued, if what the Box Ghost was telling her was accurate. She had never heard of a ghost that just wanted humans to be safe _from_ ghosts. She couldn't help but speculate why a ghost like that would be chosen as king. As she thought more, she was unable to stop her curiosity from growing, as her mind was filled to the brim with more and more questions. Hastily, Maddie pondered some of her queries for a moment before turning back to the Box Ghost with resigned decision.

"I want you to take me to the king," she resolved.

"You... want me to what?"

"Take me to the Ghost King. I want to speak with him."

"I – I don't think... know, uh, he's not in his throne room all the time, so I wouldn't know where to find..."

"Then let me wait in the throne room until he arrives," she offered.

"It's not that simple-"

"It sounds like it. I'll remind you that we're handcuffed together, I'm armed, and you don't exactly have a choice."

"I, the Box Ghost, will not-"

This time she slid her blaster against his head, "Yes, you will."

He squeaked in fear. "Are we going right now? Or – or later?"

She only glared in response.

* * *

Maddie had never been to the Ghost Zone before, outside of her experience with the previous Ghost King, of course. To be frank, she hadn't expected it to be so... complex. She and Jack had imagined it being somewhat barren and empty, but instead, it was full of color, movement, and strange floating doors. She was tempted to keep asking the Box Ghost questions, but after passing through the portal, he seemed sort of... irritated. She marked it down to the fact that he was irritated that he had to bring her to the Ghost King.

Judging by how frequently he disobeyed the rules, Maddie had gathered that the Box Ghost wasn't very fond of the new king.

He brought her to a place he called 'Pariah's Keep', which she assumed was the king's palace. The exterior of the ghostly landmark was guarded by an array of armored skeletons, which she had believed to be props until one of them had actually moved when she looked at it. She was still handcuffed to the Box Ghost, so when she jumped, it pulled roughly on his arm. However, he kept his composure and didn't give any indication that she had almost ripped his arm off with her frantic movements. Instead, he floated the pair of them down to the entrance to the palace, landing firmly in front of the guards.

One of the skeletons uttered a strand of gibberish she couldn't decipher, and the Box Ghost replied in the same nonsensical language. They continued back and forth for a few moments, before the skeletal guard turned away from the cuffed duo, and receded inside the palace. Confused, Maddie turned to the Box Ghost.

"What just happened?"

The Box Ghost shifted, quickly switching back to English. "He won't let us in unless the king approves to have an audience with you," the Box Ghost replied. "Right now he's asking if we should be let inside."

"Oh," Maddie said. "Do you think he'll speak to me?"

"Hell, if I know," the Box Ghost shrugged.

"That's helpful," Maddie groaned.

The stood outside of Pariah's Keep awkwardly, ignoring the vacant eyes of the other skeleton guards as they waited for the return of the first guard. After about five minutes, the aforementioned skeleton became visible in front of them and barked a demand at the Box Ghost.

"He says the Ghost King agrees to see you, only if you're unarmed, and that you let me go free," the Box Ghost translated.

"What?" she cried, outraged. "I have a right to have weapons, especially since all you ghosts are naturally armed and I'm at a disadvantage."

"Those are his only conditions for you to speak to him," he reminded.

Maddie grumbled angrily, but eventually took the handcuffs off the Box Ghost, unclasped her weapons belt, and set her blaster on the ground. She suddenly felt naked without the security of her equipment.

She didn't have time to register his departure, but as soon as he was free from his bondage to Maddie, the Box Ghost shot into the air, decisively staying as far away from her as possible. Maddie helplessly called for him to come back, because she needed a translator, but it was too late. She just hoped that the Ghost King spoke English, because otherwise it would be a pretty dead-ended meeting.

The skeleton guard nodded at Maddie, and gestured for her to follow him into the palace. She was uncomfortable with it, but hesitantly followed.

Maddie's first impression of the throne room was that it wasn't particularly remarkable. Almost all of her vision was clouded with an unattractive, dull purple, and the ceiling had to be at least thirty-feet high. The only visible sources of light were the green torches that adorned the wall, creating ominous shadows. Other than that, there was nothing outlandish to behold, with the exception of the king's throne itself. It was made out of strikingly luminous marble and had realistic human skulls sculpted into the parallel armrests. What caught Maddie's attention, however, was the strikingly small figure perched atop the gigantic throne.

She instantly felt foolish and betrayed. The Box Ghost had failed to mention that the new Ghost King was Phantom, Amity Park's very own ghost-boy and alleged 'hero'.

Phantom sat on the throne rigidly, and Maddie discerned that his body-language was screaming in discomfort. He wasn't wearing his usual costume, yet he was still as recognizable. Instead of his normal, flimsy, skin-tight jumpsuit, he wore a more practical version with a more leathery material. It was slightly more bulky on him, but still complimented his thin figure, while giving him a more armored visage. His pristine white gloves had been replaced with chunky metal gauntlets, adorned with an elegant, glowing green ring. Phantom also wore a pure black shawl, which appeared at least two sizes too big for him, but it gave him a more sophisticated appeal. They were hard to see, but there were miniature green skulls that accessorized the collar of the shawl. Most dramatically about his updated outfit was the fiery crown hovering about his hair, brazenly flickering in the form of ectoplasmic fire.

As soon as she found herself in front of him, the skeleton guard pushed her to the floor, and hissed a violent command that she couldn't understand.

"That won't be necessary, Kilgore," Phantom said, glancing at Maddie worriedly. He quickly switched to the ghost language and spouted off a few more words to the guard, Kilgore, dismissing him. Once the guard had left, he looked back at Maddie with sympathy, "Sorry he did that. The skeletons aren't really the best when it comes to my guests."

Maddie suspiciously narrowed her eyes, " _You're_ the Ghost King. You, _Phantom_. Is this some sort of joke?"

Phantom, who had oddly relaxed once his guard had left, snorted. "You tell me. I didn't want this stupid job in the first place. But unfortunately for both of us, I _am_ the king." He moved around in his throne, looking more and more like a kid.

Once again, she was confused. "You mean, you don't want to be king?"

She had believed that Phantom was just some power-hungry, attention craving ghost who lead Amity Park to believe he was a hero so he could constantly be in the spotlight. Not to mention, he got to show other ghosts who was more powerful. If that were true, he would love being king. But according to what he had said, he thought the opposite.

Could it be that... he actually cared about Amity Park? She remembered what the Box Ghost had said earlier about the king, that he empathized more with humans than with ghosts. Could Phantom have really been trying to be their hero, and she had just assumed otherwise? She didn't like having to reevaluate everything she thought she knew about Phantom.

"I hate it," he said nonchalantly, confirming her inquiry. He rolled his hand over, boredly staring at the glowing ring on his finger. "Anyway, Kilgore said you requested to speak with me, so what did you want to talk about?"

"I..." she lost track of what she had been planning to say. After a few seconds, she got over her disorientation and resolved on what she wanted to say. "Why did you command the ghosts to stay out of Amity Park? Why do you care so much about humans, when you're a ghost?"

"Well, I mean, just because I'm a ghost doesn't mean that I automatically hate humans. I was human too, you know," Phantom said. Maddie frowned, it was an unpleasant reminder that the boy in front of her had once been a normal boy before dying so young. "Just being a ghost doesn't give me, or anyone, the right to hurt people, especially people who are still alive. That's why I've always protected Amity, because saving people is the right thing to do."

Maddie was actually blown away by Phantom's complex thinking. She had pegged most ghosts as selfish creatures, but... from what he was saying, he actually did care about other entities. That, and he had apparently retained some set of morals from when he was human, and recognized what was right and what was wrong.

She had thought that ghosts were unable to control their evil natures, but what if all the evil ghosts she had encountered up until now were selectively evil? What was the natural state of ghosts, and how did Phantom fit into it? He was an enigma, unlike anything else she had seen before, and the more she spoke with him, the more questions she had.

"But... if you can prevent ghosts from going to Amity Park, why do you not like being king?" she asked.

She was afraid that the young ghost would get offended, but to her relief, all he did was frown. "Well, I'm not really the type to be a king. I can't really lead, give orders, I don't like strategy, and my only notable skills are limited to fighting. I'm not royalty, and I'm just some kid. Besides, this job is _way_ too much of an obligation and I have enough responsibilities as it is. Not to mention, I'm only partially qualified, but I guess since I beat up the last king, they didn't have anyone else to replace him. So now I'm stuck with this," he shrugged, gesturing to the throne and his crown. "I'd let someone else do it, but I'm too afraid they'll end up trying to invade Amity Park like Pariah, so for now, I guess I have to."

He was not only selfless, but also recognized his own flaws and didn't care for the ultimate power in his hands. Which made him more an even righteous king, she supposed. So maybe, whoever chose him to be king, knew what they were doing. As a ghost, he possessed anomalous features that were ideal for royalty, even if he'd have to grow into the role a little bit.

Maybe, she had misjudged him.


	17. Revival

Day Eighteen: Revive

Genre: Angst

Words: 630

* * *

A ghost attack had never killed anyone before, but due to recent events, it came frighteningly close. All of Amity Park had watched with grievous anticipation as Phantom painstakingly resuscitated the frail form of William Lancer after he had been thrown into a live power-line while trying to protect two of his students. The bald man lay sprawled across the asphalt, slowly losing signs of life.

After realizing the situation, Phantom had rushed down to tend to Lancer. Overwhelmed with immense fear, the ghost-boy checked Lancer's vitals and realized they were failing. His heart was about to stop beating and – oh, God – his heart was about to _stop_ beating. He couldn't die. Couldn't die. Shouldn't die.

It was all his fault. But blame wasn't what was important.

Yet, his mind still wandered negatively, distracting him from the present matter. Which is why, for one, fleeting second, Danny's mind unwillingly flickered back to the time where something similar had happened, and this very same man had been forgotten to the world. He'd been consumed by the fire that ripped apart Danny's entire life, and was left forgotten, his impact buried and his name erased. Once dead, there had been no remains of William Lancer. That couldn't happen again. Never again. He would save him this time, and everyone else.

( _But there is no everyone else, there's just Lancer – and he's_ dying _because you're daydreaming about fake futures and non-existent circumstances!_ )

Before he wondered about what he was actually doing, Danny acted nearly all on his instincts. He ignored the horrified gasps of the bystanders, too afraid to approach the trembling ghost-boy and the dying citizen, and he attempted to recall how to revive someone who was dying.

Sam screamed something from across the street and something clicked. But... was it too risky? Yes, it was way too risky. He was horribly afraid that he would only hurt his teacher more, but he had no other choice. Because, he couldn't let Lancer die. His life was literally in the balance and nobody here could do anything, nobody but him.

Danny was scared. He couldn't ignore that.

With no hesitation (despite everything inside him _screaming_ not to) Danny had charged up his hands with ecto-energy, using them as a makeshift defibrillator. He could tell that Lancer's heart wasn't beating, but he still had to try. There was no way in hell Danny would let his teacher die if there was any chance in saving him. This _had_ to work.

He pressed his hands against Lancer's gradually sinking chest and released an excess of energy that would usually be fatal, yet in this situation, it was ironically the opposite. Lancer's body twitched with the addition of pressure and foreign energy ripping through his heart, penetrating the fragile organ so it could restart.

 _It_ has _to restart_ , Danny thought, allowing those simple words to become a small chant in his head.

 _Has to restart. Should restart. Must restart. Needs to restart._

Through his simultaneous state of panic and erratic thinking, Danny was actually surprised when the defibrillator worked. His heart released it's worry in exchange for relief, and his fear slowly started to melt away when he realized that it was over.

Lancer didn't wake up or dramatically start coughing, but Danny could feel his pulse begin to resume a less than steady pace, but his heart was still beating, which meant he was _alive_. Relieved, Danny extinguished his hands, and hazily awaited the paramedics, which he assumed someone had already called for.

Sam and Tucker, the two students who Lancer had sacrificed himself for, approached Danny gently. The three of them had no shame in admitting they were all crying into each others' arms.

Lancer would be alright. For now, anyway.


	18. Danny Faces the Phans

Day Nineteen: Phandom

Genre: Humor

Words: 2767

* * *

By this point, Danny should know not to start stupid bets with his friends, which made his inevitable fate a lot more painful. The bet had been predictable, yet Danny still fell for Sam and Tucker's trap. In retrospect, he really _was_ gullible.

The bet had been if Danny could go a day without having to use his ghost powers. The conditions were that he was allowed to use them in ghost fights, but he wasn't allowed to rely on them at all besides that. Which meant, no flying to school, no turning invisible to get out of the way, and no turning intangible to open his locker. When the bet had been made, Danny was confident he could go a day without subconsciously relying on his powers, so he hadn't really worried about the price of failure. That had been his first mistake.

"I don't know why both of you are betting against me," Danny rolled his eyes. "I went fourteen years without superpowers, I can go a day without them."

Sam snorted, "No you can't. The other day you took a bite of hot macaroni, and instead of spitting it out, you turned your head intangible."

"I have the video proof," Tucker added.

"So what? My powers are convenient sometimes. That doesn't mean that I _can't_ live without them."

"Yeah, but you're you," Tucker said. "Just admit already, you've already lost this bet, dude."

"I hope you remember that we tried to warn you when you're suffering next Thursday," Sam smirked.

The deal of the bet was that if Danny lost, he would have to attend Casper High's Danny Phantom 'Phan' Club for an entire session. If Sam and Tucker lost, they would have to come with Danny on the next Fenton family camping trip. Both were horrible punishments – and neither party was willing to back down.

Soon, came the actual day of the bet. Personally, Danny though he'd been up to a good start. Instead of phasing through the floor to get to the kitchen, he walked down the stairs. Instead of flying to school, he rode the bus for one of the first times since the accident. Instead of going invisible when Dash walked through the doors to school, he let himself be seen and thrown around a little bit. Instead of intangibly getting his books from his locker, he had to listen to the lock to open his locker without his combination (he had long forgotten it). However, in third period his ghost sense went off and he had to go discreetly transform, but he managed to capture the ghost quickly and resume the bet.

Proudly, Danny lasted the entire school day without using his powers. Until, when he was running up the stairs to his bedroom with Sam and Tucker, he accidentally slipped on the top step, and caught himself with a bout of levitation.

Needless to say, Sam and Tucker didn't let him live it down, and he was crushed when he realized that he actually had to go through with his end of the bet. Most of Danny's fans were supportive of him and tolerable, but the group called the 'phandom'... they were certifiably insane at times. The Casper High 'Phan' Club was lead none other than the queen psycho herself, Paulina Sanchez. Silently, he prayed for his sanity as he ignored Sam and Tucker's triumphant laughter.

* * *

The day of the club meeting, Danny tried to be as late as Sam and Tucker would let him. The meeting started at 3:15, so he made sure to show up no less than two minutes late. His two 'chaperons' dropped him off outside of the classroom the meeting was held in, and glared at him threateningly.

"We'll be on campus the entire time," Sam warned. "We have the Fenton Ghost Tracker and we'll know if you move from the classroom, at all."

"I'm also in direct contact with Mikey and he'll tell me if you leave, at all," Tucker added. "So don't try to outsmart us by flying up to the roof so you still appear on the tracker. FYI, that wouldn't work anyway, since your parents upgraded this version to show GPS and altitude."

"You guys really thought this out," Danny said, amazed. "You really _do_ want to torture me."

"Hey, you lost the bet," Sam shrugged. "We're just making sure you go through with your promise."

"Assholes," Danny muttered.

"We try our hardest," Tucker grinned. "Now go play nice with the other kids, they don't bite, unless you're Danny Phantom. Oh, wait..."

"Seriously, go to Hell."

Finally, Sam and Tucker pushed him inside the clubroom and he was faced with twenty unimpressed stares. Most of the people were sitting in the first few rows of desks, while Paulina and Star (president and vice president of the club) were standing up at the front, where the teacher usually gave lectures. Danny observed with dread that there were a few people wearing t-shirts with his face on them, and laughed nervously as he awkwardly joined his classmates. He noticed that the girl to boy ratio was about two girls for every one guy, but he was relieved it wasn't _only_ girls; that would be even more humiliating.

Paulina and Star apparently hadn't started the meeting yet, and were whispering to each other at the front of the room. Paulina was reading notes off of her cell phone, and Star was making suggestions to her. After about another minute of this, Paulina took to the teacher's podium and smiled.

"Alright, guys. I want to thank you all for coming to the twenty-first weekly meeting of the Danny Phantom 'Phan' Club! I know it's hard, since exams are coming up in a few weeks, but I'm glad all of you could make it! Anyway, today we have some fun stuff planned. We're up for our usual ship discussion, Laura has some new evidence that may help us figure out who Phantom was before he died, and we have the rest of the time devoted to snacks and working on our list. But first," she paused, grinning a little, "it looks like we have a first timer," Paulina gestured to Danny. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat when the attention was brought back to him. "Would you stand up, Fenton? We have an initiation for all of our new members."

Danny didn't like the sound of 'initiation'. But, everybody was staring at him expectantly, inexplicably smiling, thus, he had no choice but to go along with whatever it was.

Star approached him with a wadded up, overlarge, black t-shirt, and held it out towards him. "Put it on," she said simply. Cautiously, Danny took the shirt from her and actually looked at it. In chunky white letters, the shirt was captioned with _'It's not gay if he's dead'_ and completed with his logo. He had to read it over a few times to understand what it was implying, and once it dawned on him, he wanted nothing more than to burn it with a handful of ectofire. But since he was unable to do that, Danny roughly swallowed, and tried to convince himself that he could still come out of this with his dignity intact.

With everything inside him screaming not to do it, Danny pulled the demeaning shirt over his regular shirt and sat down without a protest.

He was going to kill Sam and Tucker for dragging him into this.

"Alright," Paulina chirped, "now we can officially start today's ship discussion! As you guys know, there's a lot of girls, and a few guys, around Amity that we've paired Phantom with, but today's discussion will be about just the main OTPs. Of course, that includes Phantom and me; the ghostly pop singer, Ember McClain; Gregor Palinski, the goth boy that also goes by Elliot; the mysterious Red Huntress; and our star-crossed lover, Jazz Fenton."

Danny almost choked, "J – Jazz?"

Most of the people they paired him with, he was very objectified to. After all, he'd finally gotten over his crush on Paulina, Ember and Gregor were his enemies (plus, he didn't lean that way, despite what his shirt said), and Valerie hated Phantom's guts. But Jazz... that was crossing the line. The was his his freaking sister, after all! Of course, he supposed nobody else in the room knew that.

"Yeah," Star explained, "your sister suspiciously has a _lot_ to do with Phantom. It's weird, but she's been seen with him around Amity Park like, a lot. I don't know if you're aware what Jazz does, Danny, but she's been even seen patching Phantom up after ghost attacks. Not to mention, Phantom carries around a lot of your family's weapons, so that means Jazz must've given them to him. And, she's also a really big fangirl. I have a friend who's confirmed that she keeps this Phantom scrapbook in her locker and there's a rumor that Phantom took selfies with her! Tell me that doesn't just scream that they're together. All the evidence is there."

Danny supposed that they were right, there was a lot of evidence that proved Jazz had a somewhat close relationship with Phantom. But they were just siblings, so of course she was going to help him out when he was hurt, and who cared if they took selfies together?

"Jazz X Phantom is so OTP," a girl swooned. Danny didn't know what that even meant, but the way she said it scared him. "They're the Romeo and Juliet of the Phandom. She's from a family of ghost hunters, and he's a ghost. Forbidden love can't be more poetic than that..."

He threw up in his mouth a little.

"Please, we all know that the real forbidden love ship is Phantom X Red Huntress," Lester rolled his eyes. "She seems like she wants to kill him, but under that angry facade and armor, is potential romance."

"Phantom and Huntress are a horrible match," another girl argued. "If you're going to pair him with someone he fights, ship him with Ember. They fight each other, but it's never really in hatred, she just fights him because he tries to send her back into the Ghost Zone. Under the right circumstances, they could totally fall for each other. And since they're both ghosts, that probably makes them even more compatible."

"Yeah, but Ember's too full of herself, unlike me," Paulina said, ignorant to her hypocritical defense. "Plus, Phantom saves me, like, _all_ the time. That proves he likes me."

Danny groaned. He only had to save Paulina so often because she purposely threw herself into danger so he'd have to save her. This conversation was honestly driving him into insanity. It hadn't even been five minutes and he was already prepared to smash his head into a wall, repetitively.

"I think you're a little too biased, Paulina," Mikey snorted.

"Think what you will," she said, "but it's true. He at least likes me, so that means, one day, he'll love me."

"I think we're all missing the real number one ship," the girl named Laura interrupted. "Gregor X Phantom is a literal gem. They're both white-haired hotties and they look so good together, and not to mention that it has the best fanart."

"Shut up, Laura," the 'Ember shipper' said, "you're the only one who ships them because you're obsessed with yaoi."

"Yaoi is an _artform_."

"Guys, can we not to other people to shut up?" Star mediated. "Even if you don't agree, everybody's opinion must be respected because this is a group discussion."

The two girls glared at each other, before the ship conversation continued. Unfortunately for Danny, it dragged on for another ten minutes before Paulina called that they were moving on to their next activity. This 'phandom' was even worse than he had initially expected. It was even worse that everybody here was objectifying his ghost half, despite the fact that was standing right there, and nobody could know. He wondered what they all would do if he revealed his secret to them right there, and how they would react. Of course, he would never be so irrationally stupid, but it was a tempting thought, just to watch their horrified reactions.

When the meeting continued, Laura began her presentation on how Phantom could have been part of a government conspiracy during the Cold War, trained to fight Russians. However, he was in an accident (explaining the HAZMAT suit), and his sense of justice transferred over to his ghost, allowing him to become Amity's teenage hero. Funny enough, the accident part wasn't that far off from the truth, but he thought the Cold War detail was a little interesting though. Honestly, it wasn't that mediocre of a theory, and it could certainly hold some veracity.

"Okay, so now we can work on our list," Paulina announced. She noticed Danny's confused look and elaborated. "Since you're new, Danny, I guess I'll fill you in. All of us are working on a plan to interview Phantom. We have an entire strategy on how to get him alone, and how to persuade him to agree to telling us information. We've figured out that he's secretive and doesn't like talking about himself, so we had to come up with a scenario where he'd willingly give us information. But our list that we're working on, is the questions that we plan on asking him. Right now we've got about thirty approved questions, but now we're trying to order them by importance, so we can decide what's most crucial to ask him."

She showed him a piece of paper full with less than legible cursive script. "I know it's hard to read, but it's all on here if you want to see what we have. Also, if you can think of any new questions, let us know. We're trying our best to make this _perfect_."

Danny wasn't as shocked as he should've been that they were plotting to corner him and force him to answer their questions. He legitimately expected nothing less from these lunatics at this point. So, if they were going to attempt to interrogate him, he figured he might as well look at their questions so he could get a decent idea on how to avoid them beforehand. As he slowly read the messy writing, he was less and less impressed by the lack of creativity put into the questions.

 _Question 1: Do you have a girlfriend and/or crush and who?_

 _Question 2: Who were you before you died?_

 _…_

 _Question 9: Do you have any exes?_

 _…_

 _Question 13: What's your ideal partner?_

 _…_

 _Question 20: Is white your natural hair color?_

After reading about two-thirds into the questions, Danny was so deprived of common sense he couldn't bring himself to read any more. He gave a light-heartened, completely fake smile, and handed Paulina the paper back. God, how he wanted for this meeting to just _end already_. He couldn't believe that he was being forced to stay here the entire time just because some stupid bet. This was way too much punishment from just a bet. He was physically just over all of this bullshit and he wanted to fly away and never look anybody in the eyes again because this was just way too traumatic.

Danny was scarred from this.

When the meeting finally ended, and everyone dispersed, Sam and Tucker found Danny curled up in a desk, sitting in the clubroom alone. Someone had turned the lights out, and Danny was just sitting there, absolutely defeated.

"Hey," Tucker said, nudging Danny's shoulder, with genuine concern. They had expected Danny to be angry, but not... so broken looking. "Are you alright, dude?"

"Never..." he whispered. "Never again. Don't make me every do anything like this from now on. I'll never forgive you."

"It couldn't have been _that_ bad," Sam said, in disbelief.

Danny looked up at her, "Someone brought cupcakes with my face on them, and I had to watch Paulina shove one down her throat. _My face_ , Sam. A – and they want me to date my sister and like... it's too much."

"Wait, you and Jazz? Ew," Tucker gagged.

"I had to pretend like I wasn't grossed out," he said. "It was hell."

Sam, realizing that he was serious, looked at him sympathetically. "Do you... do you want us to walk you home?"

Danny shifted in his chair like a small child and considered her offer.

"That'd be great," he replied. "As long as we talk about something besides _me_ , I think I'll be fine."


	19. Nightmare

Day Twenty: Nightmare

Genre: Angst/Horror

Words: 4801

 _ **WARNING: PROFANITY, MILD GORE, CHARACTER DEATH, AND LOTSA ANGST**_

(AKA I sorta got carried away with this one. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ )

* * *

When Danny made the decision to tell their parents, Jazz supported him every step of the way. The two siblings had planned it out, and even memorized backup plans if the conversation didn't seem like it was going their way. She did everything in her power to guarantee that Danny was mentally prepared for his secret to finally be out in the open, however, it wasn't him that she should've made sure was ready.

Instead, she should've spent more time examining their parents. That was her crucial mistake.

They asked their parents to talk in the living room together, a place with no distractions and felt more homey than the lab or kitchen. Danny was the one who hesitantly asked them to disarm themselves, much to Jack and Maddie's befuddlement. Though, the two parents complied with their son's request, and unstrapped their weapons belts and emptied their pockets of any remaining guns or blasters. Jazz gathered all the weapons and transferred them to the kitchen table, where they could be easily found when this was all over.

When she returned back to the living room, Danny was holding his hand to the back of his neck, avoiding meeting his parents' eyes. She reassuringly squeezed his hand, but quickly let go before he could be embarrassed at her attempt at familial affection.

"What did you want to tell us, Danno?" Jack asked, confused.

Danny's eyes skirted back and forth between both of his parents, before he settled on looking at the wall behind them. "I... I have a confession to make. It's something I've been keeping from you guys a long time now, but you both deserve to know. Just promise me that you won't... freak out."

"Why would we freak out?" Maddie asked. "What have you been doing, Danny?"

He swallowed. "It's a long story. Just... when I'm telling you everything, can you keep questions to a minimum. I've got everything planned out in my head, and if I have to stop saying it, I don't know if I'll be able to keep it going."

After sharing a brief glance, Jack and Maddie nodded.

Danny started telling them everything from the beginning. How he had been caught in the portal accident, how he came to realize what had happened to him, and how he had decided to fight off all of the ghosts that came to attack Amity Park. Their parents remained silent throughout the entire explanation. Jazz had initially thought their reaction was a good one, considering they didn't present any threatening body-language.

When Danny had concluded his verbal explanation, he looked at his parents expectantly. No one said a word.

"D – do you guys want me to show you?" Danny broke the ice.

Jack and Maddie still remained silent. Jazz narrowed her eyes.

"Mom, Dad?" she asked. "Can you answer Danny's question? Is it okay if he shows you?"

Maddie clenched the side of the couch. "It's not possible." Her voice was scratchy and hoarse, and her eyes indicated blatant denial.

"But it is," Danny said. "I've been this way for over a year, Mom. I _am_ sorry I kept it from you. I was just... scared."

Maddie cringed and refused to meet his gaze. Since she was failing to recognize the truth, Danny decided that he might as well show them. It would help them accept that everything he said was real, and that he wasn't just making things up.

"Going ghost," he muttered, letting the white halo form around his waist. It panned up and down, revealing his other form and ghostly persona. Jazz smiled encouragingly at him, until she noticed her parents' sudden reaction.

Maddie had jumped off of the couch, while Jack had reached for his weapons belt, which was no longer there. Protectively, Jazz leaped in front of her father to prevent him from trying to harm Danny. A forlorn sense of betrayal was present in every member of the room, and nothing was going as they had planned it. Was this the road to a rocky acceptance, or was this rejection? Neither of the siblings knew, and they were both outright terrified.

"Mom, Dad, it's still me," Danny told them. "I'm still your son, Danny. See." He transformed back into human form. He tried to approach his Mom, but she backed away violently, nearly tripping over the coffee table.

"Stay away from me," she hissed. A look of hurt crossed Danny's face, but she presently ignored it. " _My son_ isn't dead."

"I – I'm not dead, though, Mom. I still have-"

"Don't call me that," she declared. "You're just a thing, I don't want to hear you call me that."

"I'm still alive! I'm only _half_ -ghost. _Half_ -dead. My heart still beats and I still have to breathe and – and-" he took a panicky breath, "I'm still Danny."

"No you're not," Jack grumbled. "You did show us; you're just some good-for-nothing ghost!"

"Just because I'm a ghost, that doesn't mean I'm not Danny! I'm still human!"

Jazz was too shocked to speak. She couldn't believe her parents were actually rejecting him, they were supposed to accept him. Why couldn't they just see that he was telling the truth, that he was still himself, despite that part of him happened to be a ghost. Jack and Maddie Fenton were never narrow-minded people, so why were they acting so obstinate?

"You speak lies!"

"Stop trying to convince us you're our son, you protoplasmic mimicry! You've shown your true colors!"

"Mom... Dad... _please_."

Jazz finally snapped out of her speechless stupor. "Will all of you just stop!"

That seemed to do the trick, for about five seconds. Soon, all the attention in the room was brought back to her and her parents seemed to also recognize her as a target.

"Jazz, you can't seriously believe that this... _thing_ , is your brother?"

"Don't you ever call him a thing again," Jazz replied in a low voice, glaring dangerously at her mother. "He is your fucking son, don't you dare try to deny that. Sure, he's different – he might not be fully human, but he is fully a part of this family. He's still a Fenton and I seriously can't believe the both of you are so prejudiced that you can't even see your own family through your hatred. We told you because we thought you'd accept this, but clearly, we were wrong."

Jack frowned. "How can we ever accept something that's dead?"

They were supposed to be their parents, yet in that moment, all Jazz saw were a pair of strangers.

She was too off-guard to realize that her Dad had pushed her aside again, and that he was now in front of her, rather than safely behind her. He loomed over Danny menacingly, unmercifully ready to physically confront what he believed to be nothing more than a shell of his son. He grabbed Danny by the collar, and started dragging him towards the kitchen – the weapons! – and Danny was too shocked to consider phasing through Jack's grasp. Jazz tried to intervene, to rescue her brother, but this time Maddie stood in her way, preventing her from reaching her father.

Jazz thrashed against her mother as Jack pulled Danny towards the kitchen where all the weapons were. _My parents are actually trying to hurt my brother_ , she thought hopelessly. _How did it come to this? Why is our family so irreparably damaged and broken?_

As Jazz fought against her mother, she seemed to forget one important fact: Maddie was a 9th degree black belt. And despite that she was fighting her daughter, the deranged woman hardly held back. All it took was one sweep under Jazz's feet, and the sixteen year old's body dropped to the floor, her head hitting the corner of the table on the way down, rendering her instantly unconscious.

* * *

When Jazz awoke, she was sitting up in a chair, arms tied tightly together behind her back. Through her disorientated state, she had trouble discerning where she was, and wondered if she had some sort of concussion. She definitely felt like her head was burning from the inside out, and that her brain was growing so large within her head that parts of it was about to start churning out her ears. She heard some sort of metallic clicking, and it took her about a minute to realize that she wasn't imaging the sound, and that it was actually real.

Wait, where was she again? She hadn't figured that out, had she? Everything was a pain to think about. Couldn't she just go back to bed with Bearbert Einstein? Why was she even sitting up?

Trying to find out more about where she was, Jazz slowly looked around and found nothing but dim lighting. Her eyes found many objects and shapes, but failed to connect them with any meaning, until, something clicked.

It was fear.

A cold fear for her brother ran through her veins, reminding her of the unforeseen events that had led her to this situation. Danny confessed to their parents, and they rejected him. Jack dragged him into the kitchen, while Maddie had knocked Jazz off her feet. And then... then what? There were so many blanks in Jazz's memory that she was frustratingly unable to fill.

She heard a voice somewhere behind her, and realized startlingly that she wasn't alone. She couldn't see anyone else, and was only positioned to see a corner of the lab.

"Jack, are you sure the gag will hold?" her mother asked. Gag? She wasn't gagged. What was Mom talking about?

"If it doesn't we can just stuff it back down in his mouth," her father replied. "Hopefully it won't be a problem with that wailing power he has."

"I think he has be in that other form to use that power, though," Maddie replied. "From the readings we've taken, it's clear he can't use any of his complicated attacks when he's in this disguise."

"That's true, but now I think maybe we should take a few more precautionary measures. It wouldn't be that difficult to sever his vocal cords, don't you think?"

Jazz's mind reeled. What the hell where they talking about? Nothing was making sense anymore. Gags? Severing vocal cords? Other forms... disguises...

No. _That_ couldn't be what was happening. Her parents wouldn't, they would never! Not their own son! There had to be some other explanation, but what would it be? From the sound of the conversation, her parents were talking about... severing her brother's vocal cords so he wouldn't be able to scream. She didn't want to believe her ears, after all, she had a concussion (she thought), so there was the possibility that she was wrong!

Deep down, Jazz Fenton knew she was rarely wrong about anything.

"I don't think it'll be difficult, no," Maddie replied. There was another metallic scrape. "But I don't think we should do it unless it's absolutely necessary. I want to keep this specimen intact as possible before we start the real incisions."

 _Specimen_. They were talking about vivisecting their own son. Something gurgled in her stomach and she felt bile slowly crawl up her throat, making her choke on her own vomit. She swallowed it back down shamefully, trying not to let herself puke all over her body. Her parents must've heard her awkward noises as she attempted not to vomit, and the scraping stopped.

"Jazz?" her father asked, his voice sounding inappropriately sincere. "Are you awake?"

"Go to hell," she whispered, weakly. She couldn't believe he had the nerve to talk to her sounding so... gentle. So fatherly and caring, when moments earlier he had strapped his own son down to a metal table to rip him apart from the inside out. She didn't know how she hadn't seen it before, both of her parents were monsters. They were blinded by their hatred, and it was going to consume their entire family in the darkest way possible.

Jazz knew she had to escape her bonds, she had to save her brother from their parents' wrath. She tried to subtly loosen the ropes around her wrists, but to no effect. In a fit of frustration she tried to stand up from the chair while still tied to it, and only ended up tilting the chair backwards for a moment before falling back to where she was. She had to be capable of more, she had to save Danny from their parents.

 _Their Goddamn parents._

"Jazz..." Jack said tentatively. She heard footsteps across the lab floor, approaching where she was tied up. "Sweetie, we're sorry, but you don't understand. That thing has been brainwashing you. We have to do this."

"That's your _son_ ," she croaked. "You evil, twisted, fucking bastard! That's Danny! You can't hurt my brother!"

"Danny has been gone for a while Jasmine," Maddie spoke up. "I know it's hard to believe, but this is just an illusion of what your brother used to look like. It's hard for us too, but the truth is that Danny is dead, and there's nothing we can do to get him back. All we're doing is stripping this gross manifestation down and getting all of the data we can out of it before we destroy it."

"You're the one in denial! Can you at least look at the facts before you do something irreversibly insane! He's not a full ghost! Danny's still human! He still has a beating heart!

"Which, according to the scans we've done, his 'heart' is majorly comprised of ectoplasm. The same is true with all of his internal organs and blood. He's a ghost."

"You're not evil listening, you heartless _monsters_! Don't _you_ realize how screwed up this is? This is illegal, unethical, murder! You're killing your son!"

"But we've already killed our son," Jack said, morosely. "It was our portal that killed him the first place."

"We're sorry for making you go through this, Jazz, but we really have to do this. We don't have any other choice. Now that we know the truth about what happened to Danny, we have to make sure that his protoplasmic imprint is disposed of. And if we're going to get rid of it, we might as well dissect it first. I just wish you understood that this isn't your brother..."

"YES IT IS! YOU'RE CR-"

A thick pair of hands shoved something soft and dry in her mouth, preventing her from speaking. She thrashed against it and attempted to spit it out, but it was being tied against the back of her head. She felt her eyes bulge out of her head when she realized that she too, was being gagged. _No no no no no no no-_

"You'll thank us later, Jasmine," her father whispered. "This is what's necessary. It's not ideal, keeping you down here like this, but we're afraid you'll get loose if we don't keep you under constant watch, and the last thing we need is you interfering with our work. Just... this isn't to disrespect Danny's memory. This is to preserve the Danny we knew and to remove this impostor."

But that _was_ Danny.

Jazz continued to fight against her bonds and the gag, rendering her unable from communicating with her captors. _This wasn't right, all of this was so screwed up,_ she kept reminding herself. She didn't know the extent of the matter until her parents actually began the process of vivisection. She was turned away from the table, and could see the vague shadows of their forms on the wall, but had no visual indication of what was actually occurring.

"Jack, hand me the scalpel, please," Maddie ordered.

There was a shuffling of hands and clinks of metal.

"Making incision... top of the sternum..."

There was a horrible sound of something digging into something wet and tearable, Danny's flesh being ripped apart. Within seconds, she was made aware of Danny's muffled screams that her parents flippantly ignored. His anguished vocation of pain and torture bit into the air softly; any coherent noise that he had the ability to make was promptly snuffed out by his gag. Jazz also cried out against her gag, protesting her brother's unimaginable hell.

The soundtrack continued. There was more cutting and slicing and digging into something wet, and the dripping of blood against metal. The stench of blood casually tainted the air, continuing to torment Jazz's limited sensory input to the situation at hand. Danny's injured screams never silenced, and Jazz eventually broke down into a fit of hyperventilation and sobs. This wasn't their parents. This wasn't their family at all. This was inhuman.

What did Danny ever do to deserve such pain? Why had Jazz failed as a sister, as his protector? This was never supposed to happen. This was evil. This was wrong.

There was snapping and screaming and something squishing and more screaming and also the sound of tearing something tough into smaller shreds. The shadows on the wall danced with the grisly poise of murder, bathing in the artwork of blood that they had created around the one thing that they had loved the most. What was family? What was science?

Why was this still happening?

Through the entire process Jack and Maddie narrated what they were doing with a horrifying precision and meticulous description with anatomic terms Jazz could hardly understand. Even when they stopped to take their damned notes, Danny never ceased screaming. Jazz was a failure for letting this happen to them, in fact, it was probably all her fault.

"Maddie, honey, the saw isn't plugged in. We'll never cut through these bones without it."

"Oh, that's right," Maddie muttered. "Here, I got it..."

The saw was the worst. The sound it made was like a demon, it's growling seemed to multiply and intensify the more thoroughly you listened to it. The sound of breaking bones was drowned out by it's roar and even Danny's screams of anguish seemed to fade in comparison. It was intimately deathly, and it ate Danny from the inside out like he was made of wet paper and tape.

When the saw whirled off, many minutes later, she realized that suddenly the atmosphere of the room had changed again. It took her a moment to notice over the constant, loud ringing still in her ears, but Danny wasn't screaming anymore. Everything was silent except for her own heavy breathing, and the faint sounds of Jack and Maddie moving around equipment and extracting samples from Danny.

Was he...

No.

She refused. But as the world had it, her worst fears were ultimately confirmed by ten petrifying words.

"I guess there's no need to dispose of it now." Maddie's voice held near to no emotion. "Such a shame that it died off so quickly."

Danny was actually... dead. And it was her fault for failing him. Her parents had done the unthinkable, and she had just – just...

How was she expected to come back from this? Danny couldn't be dead. It was a lie. Her parents had only _thought_ they had killed him, right? Danny was strong. Danny bounced back. Danny was always there for her.

But she had failed him and that's all that was real because everything had just happened and his blood was on the floor and guts in jars, _and oh my God they had killed him he was dead dead dead dead gone away forever unreachable-_

Jack cleared his throat. "It was truly something different for a ghost. Such a shame that it had to be Danny. But, it seems that maybe Jazz was right. It _was_ at least partially alive. Still, nothing but a nasty ghost in the head, though. Irredeemable," he reflected.

They were killers. How could they admit that Danny wasn't all ghost, but still assume that he wasn't human? They were ignorant, foolish, disgusting, and they should both go to Hell.

Maddie sighed, "If only there was an ethical way to replicate a suitable specimen. We should've preserved our study longer, but we were too hellbent on exacting revenge for how it pretended to be normal for so long."

"Yeah." Jack agreed. "The only way we would be able to safely create another specimen would be to create a new ghost around someone with a similar genetic makeup to Danny's."

"Similar...?" Maddie asked. Jazz couldn't see what they were doing, but she suddenly felt her already panicked and fearful mind go numb with a sense of pure terror.

Were they... talking about creating another halfa for the sole purpose of experimentation? Were they really so savage that such a thing was an option? She didn't doubt it anymore, after what they had done to Danny. And she was so, so frightened.

There was a movement of bodies, and she watched as their shadows on the walls approached Jazz. Were they going to let her go now? Why had they stopped talking, anyway?

Jazz didn't want to be let go anymore. She didn't want to see Danny's remains. She didn't want to know what was coming next, either.

She felt both of her parents' hands on her shoulders. The way they touched her felt affectionate, but Jazz tried to shake them off in distaste. She didn't want their blood-soaked hands touching her. Those were the hands that killed her brother.

 _The same hands that dug into his organs and blood and snapped his bones and snipped and pulled-_

A hand pulled her pants up from her ankles. It was slender and small, so it was Maddie's hand. Jazz was too confused at the action to think to prevent what was coming next, so she was completely unprepared when the sharp needle was injected into her calf, somehow accurately puncturing a vein. She bit her tongue in surprise and tried to kick her mother away, but a sleepy sensation entered her legs moments after Maddie pulled the needle out. Why... what was-

She was paralyzed. They had just injected her with some sort of drug that had disabled the use of her legs. No matter how much she tried, her legs failed to respond to her. She could still move her arms, yet couldn't, because they were still tied together. She couldn't think straight. Why had her parents turned on her now? Were they going to kill her so she couldn't tell anyone about what they had done to Danny? It would make sense, but Jack and Maddie were scientists, they wouldn't kill their daughter.

( _But they just killed their son!_ )

Okay, maybe they would. But, as of now, they had no reason to.

No, she was missing something. She was missing something very important. What was she missing? Where was the explanation for why they had just paralyzed her?

 _'Create another specimen... similar genetic makeup to Danny's...'_

There it was. The damning realization that shook her beyond all comprehension and led her to a hysterical breakdown. She couldn't believe that this was their plan now.

She was their second specimen. They had regretted killing Danny and needed a new halfa. And she shared just enough of his DNA that she would be the perfect replacement. They were going to make her half-ghost so they could do the same thing that they had done to their son. What a tragic ending to the life of Jazz Fenton. Murdered by her own parents in the name of unethical science.

She wanted to believe that she wouldn't go down without a fight, but there wasn't much she could do. They had disabled her legs, and tied her arms. She couldn't scream, and there was no one else who could ever help her. Danny was dead. He was actually... dead. Jazz was all alone, and she was left to be her parents new play-toy in the laboratory if all went to their sick, evil plan.

Her father moved her arms to where they were still tied together, but to where she was free from the chair. Jack then picked her up, bridal style and held her in his arms, looking down at his restrained daughter. She attempted to escape his suffocating hold, but was unable to move more than her torso and head in the circumstances.

"This is for the sake of knowledge, Jasmine," he whispered. "We'll always love you, this you, even after you've become a monster."

She screamed against her gag. It wasn't even a meaningful scream. It was just... pure, rampant fear and anger.

Her own fucking parents. What a joke. What a sad ending. What a cruel fate.

Maddie had pulled the power cord to the portal. It was empty now, just an empty tunnel into the wall, covered in loose wires and circuitry. The electrical smell combined horribly with the pungent scent of Danny's dissected remains that still lingered in her nose. She could see a dark, ashen imprint on the portal's floor and wondered if that's where Danny had been standing during his accident. This was where it all began for him, and this was going to Jazz's end. Because in her case, this was no accident. This was a nightmare and she had lost the ability to process what was false and what was real. Jazz swayed, as Jack cautiously walked into the portal, avoiding tripping on wires himself. He was still cradling her, and when he came to the spot where Danny had become Phantom, he placed a fatherly kiss on her forehead.

 _Hypocrite! Killer! Heartless!_

He set her on a cluster of cold wires. She tried her best to force her body to move, but the drug in her blood refused to heed to her commands. Every second was a lost chance for survival, for preventing herself from becoming her parents' replacement half-ghost lab rat. If only she could speak, she could tell them to take Vlad instead of her. Jazz didn't want to die. But her parents' blood-lust was prone to consume her, as it had already consumed them and Danny.

Her mother plugged the portal's cord back into the wall. There was a loud clicking sound, and she saw it before she felt it. A green light consumed everything, and she was falling forwards... falling forward into something cold.

She was surprised that after many long seconds there wasn't any pain, and she realized that she wasn't where she had been seconds ago. There wasn't a gag in her mouth, her arms were resting harmlessly at her sides, and she could feel and move her legs with ease. There was something metal stuck to the back of her head, causing her mild discomfort. But she wasn't dying. What had just...?

 _The cold,_ she realized. She was in someone's embrace, someone was holding her gently. She murkily looked upwards to find herself looking into a concerned pair of striking green eyes. The two of them stared at each other before she realized that she was looking at Danny, as Phantom. And he was saying something to her. Something that she was slowly trying to understand. It was as if someone had ripped her lingual knowledge of English from her head and replaced it with spaghetti, and now she was slowly reclaiming her language abilities.

"Jazz! … Jazz!" he tenderly gripped her shoulder with concern. "Can you hear me, are you okay?"

Danny was... here. He was fine. And so was she, she supposed. Had anything actually happened? In fact, when and why had they actually decided to tell their parents Danny's secret? It was starting to slip from her. Had that been real?

"Wha – what happened?" she tried to talk, but her voice came out scratchy and low.

"It was Nocturne," Danny said too quickly for her to process, "that dream ghost from a few months ago. He came back... and... he ended up trapping you in some nightmare. Sam and I escaped, but Tucker is still trapped in some nightmare somewhere."

Her mind was failing to keep up with all of his words, but she got the gist of his explanation. None of it was real. It had been some sort of fear induced nightmare created by one of Danny's enemies. And Danny! Danny was alive, and her parents hadn't... done... _that_. Everything suddenly felt lighter, and the mental weight she carried lessened exponentially.

She clung to Danny, refraining from wiping the tears in her eyes.

"So... ghost did this to me?" Even to herself, she sounded wounded.

Danny looked down and nodded, "Yeah." He strengthened their hug, strongly. Phantom's cool embrace felt more comforting that it ever had. "A – are you okay?" he asked.

"No," she replied honestly.

Because even without Nocturne's interference, both of them knew that Danny wasn't the only one who had nightmares about their parents.

* * *

 **A/N Okay so like, I've been wanting to do a dissection fic for a while and I'm actually really happy it turned out** ** _this_** **good. I apologize for torturing those poor children, Danny and Jazz alike, but you gotta admit Jazz is mentally strong af and the real Danny came out completely unscathed. There's a good chance Jazz is gonna be shaken up for a while, but since it was only a nightmare, she'll eventually recuperate since nothing really happened. However, it's up to personal interpretation if things get better or not.**

 **Also don't worry about Tucker. His nightmare is probably just a hospital version of The Shining, so nothing too traumatic opposed to Jazz.**


	20. Battle

Day Twenty-One: Battle

Genre: Drama

Words: 1461

* * *

The two women stared each other in the eye, both of them equally refusing to yield to the other. The battle of intense silence was intense, completely dependent on which weaker woman would look away first. Yet, their fierce duel trudged on, and their eyes bore into the other for so long that it seemed impossible to look away, to hopelessly surrender before the other. This was a test of endurance, of will, and neither was going to back down. Their battle was at a stalemate.

It had started with an argument minutes earlier when Pamela and Jeremy had caught Sam sneaking out of their mansion with a suspicious duffle bag, when inspected, was filled to the brim with chunky Fenton tech and expensive medical supplies. They demanded an explanation, to which Sam gave none. Thus, the intricate battle against mother and daughter had begun.

Their eyes bore into each other, their souls battling for superiority. Sam was fighting to escape her family, to continue fleeing into the night with no justification to her parents. Pamela was fighting for order, for her child to stop her rebellious and dangerous behavior that was tearing their family apart from the inside.

Jeremy Manson stood at the sidelines, watching with growing interest at the fervent stare-down between his wife and daughter. He felt like it was his duty to intervene, but something told him that coming between these two women would ensue the same result as putting his hand into a tank full of piranhas. So he backed off silently, observing.

The longer the wordless battle of volition dragged on, the more tighter Sam clenched her fists. She was clearly getting impatient, but Pamela had all night. But Sam couldn't surrender, she had somewhere she needed to be. She had people, namely Danny, depending on her. She couldn't let him down just because her parents were proving to be an irritating obstacle. With every wasted second, the stakes were raised and that meant that Danny could seriously get hurt.

Pamela, on the other hand, waited with a subdued rage for Sam to come to her senses. Once her daughter looked away from her mother's stare, that meant she had won, and she was allowed to unleash her fury onto Sam. In all due time, she would win, and she, unlike her daughter, she didn't have a time constraint burdening her. But of course, Pamela didn't know about the true urgency of Sam's actions and why she felt the need to sneak out this late at night.

After what seemed like minutes of silence, there was a loud cough that drew both of their attentions away from the other. Ida Manson had woken up from the earlier commotion and was now staring at her family flabbergasted.

"What the hell is this?" she asked, driving her scooter between Pamela and Sam. The two women only simmered more when their battle was interrupted, but contained themselves in the presence of Ida.

" _Mother,_ " Jeremy chastised. "Language!"

"Screw language. Tell me why I heard shouting a few minutes ago and had to wake up to find this mess!"

"Well, you can blame your granddaughter, _Samantha_ , because for some reason she thought it was a good idea to sneak out of the house with a bag full of ghost tech from the weird Fentons and a first aid kit!" Pamela exploded, expecting Ida to turn to Sam with disappointed shock.

Instead, Ida glanced at Sam and looked back at Pamela and her son. "And?" she asked, placing a hand on her hip.

"'And'?" Jeremy turned to his mother, concerned by her apparent apathy. "She was sneaking out!"

Ida didn't falter for a moment. "Well did you ever think that she might have a reason to?"

Pamela and Jeremy shared a baffled look for a moment, before turning on Ida.

"What are you saying? She's being rebellious and doing dangerous things in the night! There's nothing that could justify sneaking out without permission!" Pamela shrieked, attempting to sound authoritative, but sounding more and more desperate instead.

And just like that, the battle changed. Instead of Sam standing alone against her parents, it was two against two. Sam didn't know why Ida was on her side, after all, she was breaking the rules and doing something dangerous, but she supposed her grandmother was always the odd one out in the family. Or maybe, she'd finally lost her marbles. Either way, Sam didn't care. She just needed out of the house as soon as possible.

"Maybe you're just close-minded! I'm not some little kid anymore, Mom and Dad. I can't really explain, but there _is_ something I have to do, and I can be responsible for _myself_. I knew you wouldn't understand, because you never do! You've never tried to understand me in my entire life! At least Bubbe is trying to at least listen to me! All you've done tonight is scream and stare at me!"

"And all you've done tonight is being disrespectful and defiant!" Pamela declared. "Besides, you haven't given us a reason to trust you since middle school when you came home one day with half your hair shaved-"

"Oh, so it's all about my fashion choices? My music preferences? The types of books I read? You don't even care about my morals and choices, because you can't get over the fact that I'm not some sort of perfect daughter! It scares you that I have my own priorities to fulfill that you don't know about! You don't trust me because I'm different than you, not because I'm 'irresponsible'! I don't fool around with boys, I get near perfect grades, and I've never considered doing drugs! So what reasons are there to distrust me?"

"Maybe the fact that we just caught you sneaking out of the house, young lady!" Jeremy pointed out. "That's far enough reason to distrust you."

Sam narrowed her eyes, "I told you that I have my reasons, and I will stand by them."

"How are we supposed to 'accept' them if you won't even tell us what they are?" Pamela said with a hint of disgust. "You're being stupid, Sammy. I knew you've been different ever since you started hanging out with those poor, bad influencing boys-"

"Pamela, I don't think-" Ida said.

" _You what_?" Sam glowered. "What did you just say about Danny and Tucker?"

Pamela laughed in response. "Of course, why didn't I see it? That's all that this is about, tonight. Isn't it? It has something to with them, those delinquents are the reason you're breaking curfew. I mean, how did I not see it? You have a bag full of Fenton brand junk!"

"Don't you _dare_ insult my friends," Sam shouted. "You don't know anything!"

"Maybe, because you're being too stubborn to tell us anything," Jeremy fake coughed.

"Shut up, Dad!"

Jeremy looked like he'd just been slapped, and bounced back twice as angered. "Samantha, I swear, if you-"

"Jeremy, she's trying to get on your nerves! Don't stoop to her level!" Pamela hissed. " _We_ are the parents."

"Are you really?" Sam asked. "When have you ever been my parents? All you ever do is get in the way of what's important!"

"And you're just a rebellious child!"

There was suddenly very loud coughing and wheezing, that broke the family from their heated argument. Ida was hunched over on her scooter, suddenly looking very pale.

"Just remember... I forgot medic – medicine-" she rasped, keeping her head down. "Hard to... breathe-"

"Mom," Jeremy said worriedly, his anger subsiding for concern. "Just, just take deep breaths. I'll get you, uh – oh, crap. What do I do? Pamela? Do we give her the medicine or call 911 or do inhalers work or CPR-"

Meanwhile, Sam also momentarily disregarded the battle between she and her parents. She rushed forward to help Ida, who was beginning to hyperventilate, until the older woman subtly winked at her. Why did she...?

Oh. She was _brilliant_.

It was a diversion, of course. But why would Ida _help_ Sam? She'd done it before, but this time she had no reason to let Sam go free. Unless... unless she knew something she shouldn't know about. Or maybe she trusted her way too much.

Nevertheless, Sam put her worries about what Ida could know aside, and used her parents' momentary panic as an opportunity. Pamela and Jeremy had both fled to the kitchen to call their medical adviser and to scour the cabinets for Ida's medicine. Sam grabbed the bag her mother had confiscated, and fled out the door without looking back. Danny needed her, and she had no time to spare.

She had won this battle, but she still had to help Team Phantom get through the next one.


	21. Wardrobe

sequel to "Day Five: 10 Years Later"

Day Twenty-Two/Three: Wardrobe/Vintage

Genre: Family

Words: 2401

Two years after James had learned how to transform into his ghost form, his costume had grown too small to suit his rapidly growing body. Every time he went ghost, he was attacked with the sensation of restricted blood circulation and limited movement of his limbs. The old HAZMAT suit was so tight, it was an odd blessing that he wasn't required to breathe in his spectral form. After it got so bad that James couldn't even turn intangible as a ghost because his ectoplasm circulation was cut off, Danny had had enough.

He was taking his son to get a new costume immediately.

When Danny was about seventeen he had run into a similar problem, so after much asking around, he finally figured out how to change clothes as a ghost. It wasn't a very common practice, because a ghost's wardrobe was really just an extension of their core; even if the clothing was destroyed, it would eventually grow back. As a result, not many ghosts even needed to get new clothes.

Halfas, however, worked differently.

A half-ghost's physical body still grew independent to their core, so that meant that their clothes were bonded to a body that wasn't necessarily the correct size. The only way to fix that problem was to go to another ghost who could tailor a new ectoplasmic outfit using materials from the Ghost Zone and the wearer's ectosignature. It was even more complicated to bond the clothing to the wearer through a complex procedure that included a momentary separation from their core. Most ghosts were hesitant to trust anyone else with their core in their hands, but it was necessary for half-ghosts. Danny himself had done it twice in his time as a halfa.

"Don't worry, James," he reassured the five year old. "We're getting you a new costume, today."

"You mean it won't hurt to wear anymore?" the boy's eyes gleamed with hope.

"You bet," Danny grinned. "Just don't go ghost until we get there. I don't want you to be uncomfortable, because it's at least an hour drive through the Ghost Zone."

"Wait, we're going to the Ghost Zone?" James asked, excitedly. He'd only ever been twice before, and those occasions had been with his parents; his aunts, Dani and Valerie; and his 'uncle' Tucker. He'd never gone with just his Dad, alone.

"Yep," Danny confirmed. "We're making a special trip _just_ for you!"

James squealed with enthusiasm, making Danny laugh. "Wow, it's like you're not even excited," he joked, ruffling his son's messy black hair.

"Is my new costume gonna look like my one I have right now?" James asked.

"It can look however you want it to look, but I'm gonna recommend you go with something similar," Danny responded.

"Yeah, I'll probably do that," James nodded. "I like how mine looks and I don't really have any other ideas. Besides, I'm used to how I look in it, _and_ it makes me look like you, Daddy. The first Phantom!"

"You know you don't have to wear a costume to look like me, ya dork," Danny smiled.

"You always say that," James pointed out.

"Do I? Well, maybe because it's true," Danny said. "Now, are we gonna get going, or what? We have to get a move on in the Speeder if we're going to be back by the time Mommy finishes dinner. I don't know how long she can handle Lilith by herself too."

Danny's two-year-old daughter had recently learned how to turn invisible, and Sam since Sam was the only person in the family who didn't have powers, she was having a difficult time keeping Lilith under control on her own. Because of this, she had to start wearing glasses that allowed her to see invisible ghosts, similar to Maddie Fenton's.

"Alright," James complied. Danny unlocked the Specter Speeder and James eagerly climbed in. Danny on the other hand, transformed. It was easier for him to be in the Ghost Zone as a ghost, so he figured he might as well go ahead and change.

Over the next hour, Danny entertained James by pointing out different landmarks of the Ghost Zone that they flew by.

"-and that's the lair I accidentally fell into once and unwillingly ended up being the judge for a zero-gravity chariot race. They recognized me immediately and basically forced me to sit through the entire race, and because of that, I was late for your Aunt Dani's housewarming party."

"Was she mad?" James asked. "Oh, and who won the race?"

"Well, everybody in the family is already used to me being late for everything, so nobody really cared. Actually, I think Val and Tuck were betting on it. Anyway, I don't remember his name, but the ghost who won the race was this really short purple guy from like the Civil War or something."

"If he's purple, why was he in the Silver War?" James wondered innocently.

Danny chuckled. "Ci _vil_ War. It's when America got mad at itself, and the north and south had this really big fight, and the north won. Don't worry, you'll learn about it when you start school."

For the moment, James was being home-schooled until he could get a better grasp on his powers. He had control over the basics, such as intangibility, invisibility, levitation, and his transformation. But, he still had minor slip-ups, and wasn't adept at coming up with suitable lies and alibis. Danny hated teaching his children to fluently lie, but it was necessary to protect the family's secret. If the government ever found out about the three of them... plus Danielle, then it was all over. He couldn't allow him and his children to become lab rats, he would rather fully die for them instead of subjecting them to that hell. So if teaching his children to be deceitful would protect them, so be it.

"Hey, James," Danny said. "Guess what?"

James fidgeted in his seat and beamed. "What?"

"We're _almost_ there."

"Yay! So who's making my new costume, again?"

"She's called the Tailor," he answered. "She's the best clothes maker in the entire Ghost Zone. She made this costume for me a long, long time ago. It was before your Mommy and I were even married, it was _that_ long ago!"

"Wow, really?"

"Uh huh," he nodded. Danny narrowed his eyes and pointed through the windshield of the Speeder. "Her lair is right up there, just around that island of weird rocks."

It only took about three more minutes before Danny was able to park the Specter Speeder outside of the Tailor's lair. On the outside, it was just an ordinary door lair, so there was nothing physical to land on, so he had to make sure that the vehicle would be secure in the air. Danny scooped up James, and flew him inside the lair, since his son couldn't transform at the moment.

"It feels warm in here," was James's first impression of the Tailor's lair. Danny supposed it was pretty warm for somewhere in the Ghost Zone. Compared to most lairs in the infinite realms, the Tailor's was very bland and ordinary, and could easily be mistaken for any random shop in the human world. It had dim lighting and a dark tiled floor, and all the walls were obscured by endless shelves of various fabrics. The ceiling faded into pure darkness, creating a grim, yet oddly cozy atmosphere. And as James observed, it felt warm compared to the barren cold of the abyss outside.

"Who's there?" a modulated voice surrounded James and Danny from all directions. James jumped a little, but he wasn't exactly scared, just momentarily caught off guard.

"Phantom," Danny replied. "And my son."

A ghost woman appeared in front of the father and son. She had pale blue skin, luminous tied back lavender hair, and had vibrant red eyes. She wore a gray cardigan, with a forest green skirt, and brown leather ankle boots. She only appeared to be in her early thirties, so only slightly older than Danny himself, but was in actuality at least over seventeen-hundred years old.

"Hmm," she ran her eyes over the duo, focusing more on James. "He truly does look like his father, if not for the hair and eye color. He can change into a ghost, correct?"

James fidgeted nervously at her attentive gaze.

"Oh, yeah, but it's a little hard for him right now," Danny said. "That's sort of why we're here. His costume has gotten too small for him and it's causing a lot of problems."

"How so?" the Tailor asked, raising an eyebrow.

Danny turned back towards James, "Do you want to show her?" he asked.

"Am I supposed to?" James questioned, making sure that's what his father meant.

Once his father nodded his approval, James closed his eyes and muttered under his breath, focuses on that small sphere of cold inside his chest. He let it wash over him, and braced himself for the unnatural tightness of his HAZMAT suit. When the transformation was complete, the Tailor was staring at him thoughtfully.

"Oh, yes, I see how this could be a problem," was all she said. She floated over to where she was directly beside him and touched his shoulder without any warning. James flinched at the sudden contact, and had to force himself to relax, which was a difficult task when his entire body was being compressed by his suit.

"Since this is his first one, I only have one simple requirement for your payment," she said offhandedly.

"Sure, what is it?" he agreed instantly.

"I'll make your son a new costume, but you will let me make you a new one as well. Both free of charge," she smirked. She let go of James's shoulder.

"Me?" Danny asked, stupefied. "I don't need a new costume."

"Oh, please," the Tailor rolled her eyes. "You've been wearing that thing for the past eleven years. It's boring, old, vintage, if you must-"

"Vintage?" he stared at her in disbelief. He gripped a fistful of his costume's material, as if to prove a point. "This isn't _vintage_."

She cackled. "Are you fooling yourself? That's the same basic design you've worn ever since you died when you were fourteen. Black suit with a white belt, gloves, and boots. You're a twenty-eight year old man, clearly you need a new look. So yes, I'd call what you're wearing incredibly outdated, nevertheless vintage."

"What the heck would you even make me?" he grit out, standing his ground. "I like what I have. It's the signature Danny Phantom outfit, I can't just change-"

"Hush," she demanded. "Do you want me to make James a new costume, or not? Like I said, this is my only condition. Mainly, because I can't bear to see you fly around in that atrocity any longer. You need to expand your wardrobe."

"Are you sure you won't accept cash? GZ Credits? Uh... embarrassing pictures of Ember and Skulker? I have tons of those," he pleaded.

"Tempting," she admitted, "but no. I'll do James's costume first, since he is in much more dire need of a new costume. But I expect you to stick around, so I can design your new costume afterwards. If you don't, I'll just have to follow you into the human world."

James watched perplexed as the two of them stared into the other, until finally his father resigned. "Promise me you won't change it too much?" he said. "I want the same color scheme, the same logo – my wife designed it – and I still want it to be a HAZMAT style suit."

"Deal," the Tailor smiled, feeling triumphant in her victory over Phantom. "Now James, we need to get you out of that old suit as soon as possible..."

Sam laughed as her husband and son came flying out of the portal wearing their new costumes. Lilith, who was sitting on her laughed, giggled so much that she intangibly fell through Sam's embrace.

"You didn't tell me you were getting a new look, too," Sam called, as Danny walked out of the Specter Speeder.

"Yeah, well, I wasn't expecting to, either," Danny admitted. His costume was an updated version with a more armored material, that moved just as flexible as the original. Instead of a white belt, he had a green belt that allowed him to keep more ghost hunting tech on him during a fight. His boots were shorter and comfortable, while his gloves were made out of a more durable material and felt better around his hands. The upper part of his suit now was now partially white, and stopped above his regular logo. Danny was surprised that the Tailor didn't attempt to change his look drastically, and was really pleased with the thought she put into each addition.

Meanwhile, James was also happy with his new costume. Of course, the most obvious improvement was that it was his own size, so that was good. Danny also estimated that wouldn't need a new costume for at least another two years, so this one would last a while.

Overall, it wasn't as intricate as his father's, generally kept the same design as his last suit, but it still made him happy. The only change was that his costume now had the Phantom logo, which he had asked for himself, since his old suit was just plain. He'd found the process of bonding the clothes to his core a little bit weird, but after his Dad and the Tailor talked him through it, he was able to do it easily.

"Both of you are so handsome," Sam complimented them. "I'm glad that you're not being suffocated anymore, Jamie."

"Me too," James laughed.

"Now," Sam said, "who's ready for dinner? I made your favorite, James. Spaghetti. Without meat, of course."

"I like it that way though, because that's how you make it," James smiled.

"Ah, if only I could get your Dad to agree," she gave Danny a pointed look. "Anyway, it'll get cold if we all just stand around here. So, hurry up, my beautiful ghost-boys. You should probably change back too, you don't want to get sauce all over your brand new costumes. That would just be a shame."

Danny and James changed back to human, and followed Sam upstairs, who still had Lilith cradled in her arms.

It was a good night.


	22. Danny Cyclone and the Red Surfer

Day Twenty-Four: Alternate Universe

 **This is a mer!Danny rewrite of Shades of Gray. AKA "Danny Cyclone and the Red Surfer"**

Genre: Fantasy/Parody

Words: 8420 (I got too carried away...)

* * *

The Axion Marine Research Facility was teeming with activity. All throughout the building, researchers rushed from station to station, tending to the sea-animals and working on individual scientific studies.

On the other side of the facility, one Valerie Gray gazed at an empty tank of water that extended to the ceiling as her father continued to appease his boss about the new installations. She wasn't really interested, and was only walking with them because Damon had asked her to. She'd rather be at home, preferably on the phone with Star so she could complain some more about how loser Fenton had ruined her perfectly new swimsuit earlier that day.

"Digital surveillance, retina scanning access portals, titanium doors, laser detectors," Damon bragged, glancing between his boss and the two security guards. "As promised, this is the most secure marine biology facility in the United States."

A magnetic door closed behind him as they entered a new section of the building. There was another empty tank in this walkway.

Damon's boss grinned, "Well done, Damon. You can feel free to bill me the remainder of your fee."

Now _those_ words caught Valerie's attention. She perked up excitedly, "Which means, I can replace that new swimsuit!"

Behind them, there was a gradual roar of noise that made itself present. The small group of five turned to face the door defensively when many violent dents appeared in the metal. With their attention captured by the breached door, the unoccupied tank of water unexpectedly burst open, instantly flooding the tunnel and sending the humans in the small space floating. Valerie gasped, attempting to remain buoyant in the dangerous torrent of water, when a slimy arm grabbed her and pulled her to the surface.

She came face to face with a white haired, green-eyed boy with pearly, translucent skin, and menacingly sharp fangs. His fingers were webbed like some sort of frog and he had weird slits on the side of his neck. Valerie looked down and almost shrieked: instead of legs, he had one, single black appendage that almost looked like a fish tail. At this, Valerie knew she had to be dreaming.

"What _are_ you?" she spat, demanding an answer to her confused thoughts.

He didn't answer, but instead whipped around, splashing her in the process, and faced the door that had finally broken open. And then, Valerie saw why.

If she had to guess what it was, she would have to say it was a seal. But a lot... _lot_ bigger. It was at least ten feet tall, and bright neon orange. It was covered in what she assumed was seaweed, and wait, was it _glowing_? Since she grew up on the coast, and her Dad worked at a marine research facility, she knew a little bit about seals. But she had never seen one so hostile before in her life. This thing was almost a beast!

The seal irritably shook the seaweed off of itself, and it flung into the air, smothering Valerie.

At that, the weird white-haired boy snorted. "I'll tell you what I'm not: covered in sushi ingredients."

For lack of a better judgment, everything that had happened that day crept back up on Valerie, and the boy's comment did _not_ help at _all_. Her anger bubbled back up to the surface and she let out a frustrated scream.

At the sound of her voice, the seal's attention was recaptured, and it began to pounce towards her and the boy. The boy, known as Cyclone, defended against the creature's attack just in time, just before he changed direction and started swimming towards the other end of the tunnel.

"Bad seal!" Cyclone screamed, ignoring the enraged girl behind him. "No! Get back here!"

The seal swims through the flooded walkway, and crashes into another tank, into the research laboratory with started Axion employees. Cyclone followed suit, but was too far behind when the seal recklessly smashed a table of samples, pushed over a desk (with a traumatized man in it), stopped to eat some nearby fish food, and somehow caused an array of shelves to domino. The shelves pathetically fell into the flooded floor, and Cyclone started to get more and more frustrated.

"C'mon! Nemo!" he dubbed the seal the appropriate nickname before swimming forward and finally grabbing it's neck. At that, 'Nemo' started thrashing around, and becoming even wilder in the water. Cyclone hung on for dear life. "Woahhh! Slow down!"

Meanwhile, Damon, his boss, and the guards managed to open the broken door and entered the flooded lab.

Hopelessly, one of the guards tried to take action. "Halt! _Halt!_ " He attempted shooting a net canon at Nemo and Cyclone, who was still holding onto the seal's neck. The net missed and at that point, Cyclone was more agitated than anything.

"Cut it out, you stupid fish brain!" he screamed in it's ear.

Back at the door, Damon stood up confidently, refusing to allow fear to dominate his expression. "Stand back, everybody," he declared. "This state of the art security system can stop anything!

Damon pressed a button, and what appeared to be some sort of metal disco ball with striking red lasers descended from the ceiling. However, Nemo and Cyclone simply went underwater, effortlessly avoiding the lasers. Another canon from a wall shot a green net, which hovered uselessly above the water, staying afloat. Eventually bored with his rampage, Nemo decided to escape the lab by breaking through another door. Luckily, the door led to the facility's docks, which allowed him and Cyclone to quickly disappear into the ocean.

Once he realized that the creature and boy were gone, Damon fearfully noticed his boss's infuriated expression and gave a depressed sigh. "I'm fired, aren't I?"

His boss's eye twitched in unparalleled rage. "Not just fired, you're ruined."

At that exclamation, Damon and Valerie understandably looked at each other with a crestfallen resignation. Both father and daughter knew that nothing would ever be the same.

* * *

Two days after the incident at Axion, Valerie was having the worst time of her life. She was having to sell all of her belongings, yet none of her friends even acknowledged her struggles! It was so humiliating, not to mention miserable!

At lunch, Kwan noticed her and beckoned her over. "Hey Val! We're down for the concert, right?"

Valerie sighed, possessively gripping her feeble bag lunch. "Sorry guys. I had to sell my ticket online to help pay for the moving truck. Things are kinda tight now, you know?"

Dash scoffed, "No."

"Nuh uh," Paulina said, blankly.

"Not really," Kwan frowned.

Feeling a little bit hurt from her friends' failure to sympathize with her situation, she still tried to sit down with them, as usual. However, before she could take her seat, Dash blatantly blocked her from doing so.

"Speaking of tight..." he glanced across the cafeteria, looking at the loser table with Danny Fenton, Sam Manson, and Tucker Foley. Danny and Tucker were stuffing their faces with food like savages while Sam distastefully face-palmed.

Valerie grit her teeth, finally realizing her friends' cold betrayal. "I get it," she ground out, before dejectedly going to suffer through her lunch in solitude.

Just one table away, Danny, Tucker, and Sam watched her with awe.

"Woah," Tucker commented. " _Brutal_."

"Did you see that?" Danny asked, shocked. "Valerie just got scorched by her friends."

Sam crossed her arms. "Haven't you heard? She's pretty much hit rock bottom. She and her Dad have had to sell everything they own!"

Danny frowned, remembering what he had done only a few days earlier that had created this horrible predicament. If it hadn't been for Danny Cyclone screwing everything up, Valerie's life wouldn't be in shambles. He was trying to put his cursed powers to good use, but it was just harder and harder to see the positive side of things when his powers started causing other people bad luck. After all, he had hardly come to terms with his own powers himself. It still freaked him out a little bit that whenever he touched water he was forcibly transformed into a merman. Everything about the situation just screamed 'not good!', and now it was finally affecting other people.

"I feel bad," he told his friends. "If I could've stopped that mystical seal creature, none of this would've happened."

"You shouldn't blame yourself, Danny," Sam reassured him. "Some like her was practically begging to be knocked down a few pegs."

Ignoring Sam's merciless commentary, Tucker straightened his posture with the enlightenment of a new idea.

"Besides," he started, "I think all she needs is just someone to help cheer her up."

To prove his point, or to have an excuse to talk to the saddened girl, Tucker stood up from their table and strode over to sit next to Valerie.

She noticed his presence immediately and looked at him with irritable disdain. "What do you _want_?"

At her note of sudden bitterness, Tucker's swagger slipped from him, causing him to stutter. He didn't meet her eyes, afraid that her icy gaze would pierce holes within him. "I was wondering i-if you wanted to join me, us, for lunch? I-I mean, since, well I heard what happened."

For a moment she looked even more enraged, causing Tucker to flinch, but her angry expression faded into a sardonic pout. "Oh great," she groaned monotonously. "Word's already oozed down to the bottom of the social grapevine."

Cautiously watching the awkward, slowly regressing encounter, Sam and Danny stood up from their table to join Tucker. Valerie's scowl deepened at their arrival, but Danny didn't let her get the first complaint.

"Hey, come on," he said nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. "I-I know you're upset. But he just wants to help. We all do."

Sam's expression darkened unhelpfully. "I don't."

Danny and Tucker shot her an accusatory glance before Tucker stumbled on his words again. "Most of us do," he said in an inappropriate optimistic tone. "More than two-thirds."

Valerie still remained forlorn. "Forget it. I'm already aware of my sudden outcast status. Thanks for reminding me."

Sam rolled her eyes, fed up with Valerie's dramatic antics. The girl was spoiled, and any new friends were an improvement. Sam believed Valerie just didn't recognize the hidden blessing she was being handed.

"This doesn't have to be a bad thing, Valerie-" Sam started.

"Can you please just leave me alone?!" Valerie cried, sick of being told of what to do and what to feel and how many people were there for her, when the only people she had ever cared about had just left her in the dirt. These losers' opinions of her meant nothing! Even if she was socially insignificant now, she didn't need to be kicked in the stomach any more. She masked her approaching onslaught of tears with a facade of rage. "I want to enjoy my bag-lunch in peace!"

At that point, Danny had spaced out. He sensed something, something he'd only felt a handful of times. His merman abilities gave him the power to sense water at all times. It was usually annoying, because there was way too much input for his brain to process and ended up confusing him, but about two months he had adjusted to the weird sensation. But now, he felt the water pressure in the pipes below the school was rapidly increasing, becoming dangerously close to exploding. He couldn't tell what was causing the pressure increase, but it felt heavy and made Danny's head slightly groggy.

"Uh, oh," he muttered absently, continuing to stare blankly at the wall. He knew he should be moving, trying to use his powers to avert the crisis in the pipes, but he just felt so captivated by the arcane feeling within him as he felt the water tighten.

And then, it all fell apart. The pipes surrendered to the immense water pressure, causing them to explode all at once, creating jets of water to invade the cafeteria and other sections of the school. The floor became instantly flooded, sending the students into a mass panic, forcing them to climb on top of the tables to avoid getting consumed by the water. Danny however, allowed himself to be dragged under the water and out of sight, so nobody could witness his unwilling transformation. He didn't have any control in whether or not he changed; if any part of his body came into contact with liquid, that spot would tingle and reveal his other form. For example, if only his hair got wet, it would turn white. Or if only his hand got wet, his skin would turn translucent and he'd get webbed fingers and claws. But when his entire body got wet... he was forced to make the entire transition from human to merman, which wasn't exactly pleasant.

If he wanted to save his clothes, he had to take them off before the transformation began, otherwise his legs would rip through his pants, instantly ruining them. Same for his shoes and socks. After that, his legs became covered in thick, black scales, and grossly melded together until he had one, singular fishtail. The feeling of the change itself was slightly painful, especially the melding part, but after so many repetitions of this process, he was almost desensitized to it. It was a sick thing to experience, and really made Danny feel like he didn't belong in his own skin – no matter what form he was in. His initial hatred of his new dual existence was now becoming a state of permanent pensivity.

Once Danny had discarded all his clothing and had completed his change from Fenton to Cyclone, he resurfaced above the water (hoping nobody would notice the human's disappearance, and the merman's emergence). His heightened hearing throbbed with a bloodcurdling scream, and he noticed that the flooding of the cafeteria wasn't merely accidental. Valerie, the student who had screamed was face to face with a giant orange beast, which Danny grievously recognized as Nemo. Hadn't he left Nemo back in the ocean yesterday? Why the heck was he back _already_? And why did he keep interacting with Valerie Gray of all people?

Kicking into hero mode, Danny swam backwards and prepared to swim and jump over the A-List table to get closer to Valerie and Nemo. He completed the jump sloppily, and ended up splashing them both with water. At that point, many of the other students abandoned their safe positions on the lunch tables and swam towards the exits, disregarding any remaining desire to stay dry.

Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the room, a lunch lady stood on top of a counter and threw an airborne lump of mashes at Nemo. With Valerie momentarily forgotten, the giant seal turned to her and picked her up with his mouth, causing the unfortunate woman to wail in absolute terror.

Danny swam forward towards the seal once again. "Nice seal. Easy. That lady isn't edible. And neither is anything she cooks."

In response to Danny's coaxing, Nemo recklessly dropped the cafeteria lady and pawed at Danny in one fluid motion. At Nemo's half-hearted attack, Danny defensively created a water shield with his hydrokinesis and immediately regained offense by tackling him.

By the sidelines, Tucker and Valerie watched the fight with trance-like observation. Tucker turned to Valerie and shrugged. "Merpeople... What're you gonna do, huh?"

When Tucker pointed it out, Valerie's world crashed. Before, she had been in denial, forcing herself to suppress the supernatural occurrences that she'd witnessed, but when he said it so casually... everything made sense. Merpeople: the non-existent creatures the crazy Fentons had been chasing for decades were actually here... and they were slowly ruining Valerie's life. How had she allowed herself to ignore the clear, obvious facts, such as the strange boy's glowing white hair and black _tail_? How had she forced herself into a complacent state of acceptance? Was that another magical effect, the power of mass denial? Or was she just stupid for not putting it together sooner?

Valerie clutched her head therapeutically, trying to regain her sense of normalcy. "Merpeople? Oh my gosh! Merpeople!"

She was disillusioned now, and saw those sea monsters for what they truly were. Especially, that stupid merboy who had ruined her life. They were evil, wretched architects of destruction and misery – and she had no idea what to do.

* * *

Even later that day, Valerie couldn't force her recent encounters out of her memory. She'd been less affected by the fact that merpeople were real, than the fact that they were slowly disassembling her life. Her dad's job and her school were being tormented by a heinous merboy.

When she arrived at her new dingy apartment after school, she found an odd package waiting for her in her partially unpacked room. It looked just like all the other boxes she'd brought from her old house, but she knew it's presence was different. It was some kind of... gift? A pity package, maybe? She was almost tempted to tell her dad about it, but thought better of herself. What if it was something only meant for her to see, and that's why it was in her bedroom, not out with the mail.

So, Valerie predictably let her curiosity get the better of her.

She opened the top of the package slowly, and pulled out the legibly written hand-note. She read it aloud to herself out of habit.

"'Heard about your recent merfolk troubles, hope this helps. -Vlad.'" Valerie set the note out of the way and gazed down into the box with a greedy fascination. She found herself grinning manically as her brain starting revolving faster and faster around ideas of vengeance.

"Don't know who you are, Vlad," she smirked to herself. "But if this thing does what I think it does, I can't say that I care."

* * *

That same afternoon, Danny found himself wading in shallow waters at his family's private beach. Since he was in the ocean, he was obviously Cyclone at the moment, and took the liberty to show off some of his more impressive flips to Sam, who was lounged across a dull cluster of rocks. However, instead of watching her half-merperson friend joke around, she was immersed in an antique book bound with a gorgeous rainbow cover. Danny wasn't all that offended that she wasn't paying attention to him, he was mainly doing the flips as a habitual stress reliever, anyway. Nemo was really getting him wound up, and he didn't know how to outlet that frustration. It's not like he could punch the poor animal; that would just be cruel.

Finally, Danny took a break from doing flips and rested his elbows at the bottom of one of the rocks Sam was sitting on. "I'm telling you, this is one bad seal. No matter how many times I toss him into the ocean, he finds his way back to shore, and comes back to me!"

Sam glanced up from her book, "Well, you're the only merman in the area, besides that Vlad guy you warned us about. Maybe he's just drawn to your energy or something. After all, he is a lower form of selkie, which is why he has magical properties."

Danny quizzically raised an eyebrow. "Selkie? What's that?"

"According to this book you took from Nereus's prison," she referred to the breakout incident from a few weeks ago, "'a selkie is a seal-like creature that can shed their seal skin to become human' – sort of like you – 'but there are many lesser forms of selkies that have no human form. They are often regular seals, and due to their magical ancestry, appear in a rare variety of colors and possess simple hydrokinesis.'"

Danny contemplated the new information, before nodding placidly. "That... explains some things."

"Since he's clearly not going back because of you, I think you should try to train him," Sam admitted, a little harshly. Moments later, she was sliding off of the rocks, and jumping to the dry sand.

Confused by her sudden departure, Danny wondered if he'd said something to offend her somehow. "Where are you going?" he asked.

She gave him an incredulous look. "Hello? I can't be seen hanging out with a merperson. What if your parents come out and see me talking to the water? Yeah, like that isn't suspicious," she rolled her eyes.

Before she completely stalked off, Danny quickly called out for her, "Wait, how am I supposed to train him? He's a seal, not a puppy."

"It's the same principles," Sam explained. "Try teaching him some simple tricks; it will instruct obedience."

Danny sighed. "I guess I can try..."

He calmly floated under the water, letting his gills dominate again. He knew Nemo was still close by, so he used his ability to communicate telepathically with other sea creatures to call him close.

 _Nemo... here boy!_

Only seconds after Danny had emitted the mental signal, the water wavered and a miniature Nemo came propelling towards Danny's general direction. Danny had little to no time to react when the small seal transformed into it's big form again, pounced on him, and pushed him to the shifting ocean floor.

Danny pushed Nemo off of him after a few seconds of the seal's affection. "Well, so far we're off to a good start."

From the shore, Sam could see the general outlines of Danny and Nemo from above the water. She genuinely smiled at the nice scene. "A boy and his pet..." she thought, wistfully, before frowning. "Somehow it's not supposed to be this freaky. Wait, what is-"

Suddenly, Sam saw a flash of red on the horizon of the water, gradually approaching closer to the shore where Danny was. She couldn't tell what it was, but it was definitely moving fast. She squinted, trying to attempt to guess what it was, only making her more confused.

Meanwhile, Danny was still underwater when he felt a tug in his gut. He could sense the surrounding water for at least a mile, but there was a shift only about fifty feet away that was very alarming. He looked up just in time to see a torpedo heading directly for him and Nemo (who had changed back to small form), with only about two seconds to spare. He grabbed Nemo and pushed off with his tail, barely getting out of the way of the impetuous weapon. Danny knew he had only a few more seconds before his attacker would reveal himself, so he placed Nemo in a thicket of seaweed.

"Stay," he commanded authoritatively, hoping it would work.

He floats up, scanning for the hidden enemy. In his brief scan, Danny looked at the crater the torpedo recklessly created on the shallow ocean floor.

"What the heck was that?" he wondered.

A figure in a red, stylishly armored wet-suit descended from the surface of the water, balanced on some sort of submersible surfboard. The figure was completely obscured and protected from the ocean environment, keeping their identity unknown, but Danny could vaguely assume that this enemy was a girl. Danny was surprised that even though they were underwater, her suit was obviously ingrained with expensive technology that caused her to glow nearly as bright as him in the water. She also was burdened with a small oxygen tank, allowing her to breathe. She would've looked completely menacing, if she hadn't lost balance the moment she became completely submerged underwater and almost fell sideways in the water.

"Woah!" she exclaimed. Danny could hear better underwater, so he didn't know if she knew he could hear what she was saying to herself.

Despite her momentary slip-up, she wordlessly raised her arm and her suit brought out another torpedo, which automatically locked onto Danny. He managed to dodge the second assault, but he was rapidly forced into a retreat when she began swimming after him. He swam as fast as he could, which was certainly faster than her, but she used her weird underwater surfboard thingy as a rocket booster, which allowed her to keep up with Danny.

As they swam, Danny mainly kept a straightforward trajectory, while the girl behind him (she had sounded much younger than a woman) started firing bursts of anti-merperson energy, which all missed Danny considerably. However, she was still fueled by the thrill of the pursuit and the raw look of fear she'd placed on Danny's face. Unbeknownst to Danny, she was grinning under her mask, "Yeah! Now _that's_ what I'm talking about!"

When Danny thought he'd gotten out of her range, he momentarily allowed himself to float in place to catch his breath. Swimming that fast required an endurance that he didn't have yet, so he had to catch his breath. His gills furiously sucked in water to keep him from hyperventilating. However, his short break was almost immediately interrupted by three circular knives. Thankfully, they all missed.

The Red Surfer appeared in front of him and he glared at her critically, "Wow, nice aim. First day with the new weapons?"

Another one of them grazes his arm, causing him to clutch it. "Ow! That hurt!"

She sounded close to laughter. "Oh, don't worry merkid. It won't hurt long. Because _you_ are going _down_!"

She fired up her anti-merfolk blaster and shot, taking account for the recoil. Emerging from where Danny had left him, Nemo entered the fray, turning into his big form and pushing Danny out of the way just in time. Due to the new distraction, the Red Surfer's oxygen tank momentarily fell off of her shoulders, causing her to struggle to maintain balance. While she regained her composure, Nemo dragged Danny as far away from her as possible.

After realizing her prey had escaped, the Surfer angrily grit her teeth. "Come back!"

She surged against the current of the water, chasing the gigantic seal creature the merboy. She balanced the blaster on her shoulder once again, rapidly shooting at her targets with little to no accuracy, letting only her rage guide her in her hunt. She was so consumed by revenge that she disregarded her own surroundings and accidentally allowed herself to crash front first into a reef and falling. It gave Danny just enough time to slide into the rocks where Sam was anticipatedly watching the encounter.

"Who is _that_?" Sam asked curiously, before her expression mellowed to one of admiration. "That's an awesome outfit!"

Danny shot her a look. "Don't know, don't care." He turned toward Nemo, thinking of a method to get him out of the surfer's vicinity. An idea came to him, and Danny formed a small ball of water with his hydrokinesis, allowing it to hover over his hand. "See the ball boy, fetch!" he threw the ball of water and watched with satisfaction as Nemo chased it.

"Wow, he is like a puppy," he muttered absently. He then remembered the urgency of his current situation with a crushing realization. "Oh man, she's coming! I don't have any time to dry off!"

Sam looked at him in fear, also recognizing the grave inevitability of their circumstances. Her jaw then clenched tightly and she offers Danny a hand. "I have an idea! You just have to dry your hair!"

Sam had to dig her feet in the rocks to gain enough momentum to pull Danny up onto the rocks, but once he was there, she gave him the towel he'd left on the beach to use to dry off after swimming.

It took the Red Surfer no less than forty-five seconds to appear. "No escaping me now, merboy!"

She looked around frantically for the glowing boy, only to find Danny Fenton and Sam Manson wrapped up in a towel, kissing each other. Fortunately, she was far away enough not to question Danny's glowing green eyes, his paler than usual skin, and his odd shaped 'legs' under the towel. When they noticed the intruder, the two of them looked down at her, shocked.

"Do you mind?" Sam growled, angrily.

The Red Surfer backed away naturally. "Ah, gross! Loser love!" she proclaimed. "I always knew you two geeks would end up together."

She turned on her board, surfing away from the two teenagers, apparently abandoning her search for the MIA merman and selkie. When she was completely out of sight, Sam unwrapped them from the towel, and picked herself up from where she'd been pressed against Danny's fins.

Sam was watching the horizon cautiously, almost afraid their new enemy would return. "That sounded like Valerie..." she observed. She turned back to her friend who was staring blankly in lack of comprehension for what had just happened. She nervously waved a hand in front of him. "Danny? _Danny_. You didn't think that was a real kiss, did you?"

"No!" he said defensively. "Why? Did you?"

"No!" she replied just as insecure.

The two of them were suddenly welcomed with awkward silence, so Danny resignedly picked the towel back up and started using it to dry off the rest of the way so he could transform back into human.

* * *

Ever since the accident, Danny had a difficult time going to swim meets, but he still went in support of his school and to escape his house for a few hours. But... since he was in a crowded space with a pool and people with dripping wet swimsuits and wet hair and slippery wet floors and wet seats in the bleachers, he had to take some over the top precautionary measures to ensure he wouldn't accidentally change into Cyclone.

As long as he didn't turn into a fish in front of all of Coral High School, the weird looks from wearing a turtle-neck sweater, jeans, tennis shoes, and a beanie were worth it.

Valerie casually slid into the bleachers next to Danny, Sam, and Tucker. She gave Danny the signature weird look, but decided to ignore his current apparel for a different inquiry. "So," she said, trying to make her question sound natural (it didn't), "Tucker tells me that your parents hunt merpeople!"

Danny didn't appear surprised by the question, but did feel a little betrayed by his friend. After all, the trio had pretty much confirmed that Valerie actually was the violent surfer girl from the beach. "Did he now? What else did he tell you?" he glared at Tucker accusingly.

The crowd of students anxiously watched as Dash Baxter walked up to the diving board, preparing for his dive. This was when Danny stopped paying attention, because even though he was more sensitive to the pool than other parts of the school, his water sense started slipping from him, similar to how it had yesterday. He could feel the water pressure building again, and prepared himself for another attack, by subtly taking off his beanie, alerting Sam and Tucker that something was wrong.

Dash jumped off of the diving board, his form straight and composed, until moments before he hit the water, a giant wave compromised his poise. The students in the bleachers predictably screamed, and everyone began to crowd the exits when Nemo made himself known, once again. He was in his big form, unlike how Danny had last seen him, and was causing the water from the pool to spill into the rest of the room. When nobody was paying attention to Danny he stripped his remaining clothes and let his human body be stolen by the water.

On the other side of the pool, Valerie transformed into her high tech surfer gear. All of it was able to materialize over her other clothes except for the oxygen tank, which she kept in her backpack and had to put on manually.

Nemo finally spotted Danny and instantly reverted back into his smaller form, and indicatively started pawing at the ground, devoid of all hostility. Danny wasn't really an expert with animals, but he could at least understand what 'digging' meant.

"You're looking for something? What're you looking for? Is that why you won't go back to the ocean?"

Nemo didn't answer, and instead, was pushed a few feet away by one of Valerie's blasts. The seal cried out weakly, and disappeared to recover.

The Red Surfer then approached Danny. "Say goodbye, merboy."

Danny stared up the barrel of her gun, slowly swimming backwards. Sam and Tucker, practically the only students left in the room, watched from the sidelines. Sam turned to Tucker with genuine concern. "Oh my gosh! Danny's in trouble! Newsflash, that's your girlfriend."

In the past day, Valerie had pretended to date Tucker to gain information about merpeople. He knew that he was being used, and honestly didn't care.

That's why he looked at Sam dumbly for a second before smiling. "That's awesome! Hey Valerie, wait up!" In one motion, he jumped off of the bleachers and accidentally landed on top of Valerie. She groaned groggily, but Tucker remained ignorant. "Great outfit," he complimented.

While Valerie was being pinned down by Tucker, Danny used his his hydrokinesis (which he was still learning how to perform) to propel himself forwards on a wave. He swam forward and grabbed Valerie by the waist, used his tail to fly upwards, and trapped in her in a nearby swimming net used for water volleyball.

"You should be safe here until help comes," he told her.

Valerie's voice cracked with immense fury as she tried to escape the net she was hopelessly stuck in. "Get me down!" she demanded incoherently. "Get me down so I can destroy you!"

Danny didn't respond to her threat, and instead, created a new wave to allow him to swim to the boy's locker room. He slipped into the room, quickly locking the door behind him so nobody could interrupt his transformation back into a human. Danny sat on the floor and grabbed a nearby towel and used some of his hydrokinesis to help speed up the process. Eventually, he managed to dry off his tail enough to where his scales disappeared and his legs painfully separated, rearranging his muscles and bones. Finally able to stand again, Danny guiltily stole another boy's clothes (he had lost his in the chaos) and sighed.

He found himself in a mirror and made sure that he looked relatively normal again. Self-recognition welled up within him and he forced his eyes shut, musing to himself aloud. "This is all kinda of my fault, sort of," Danny admitted to no one. "I suppose I should do something to help Valerie. After I figure out what to do with that seal... _selkie_ thing."

As he walked out of the locker room, he ignored the fact that his feet were still pearly white with elongated nails. He wasn't going to steal somebody's shoes, he already felt bad for stealing a shirt and shorts. It was getting harder to transform back without so many complications; he really needed to find a solution to his clothes problem eventually. But first, he had to find a way to keep Nemo in the ocean and figure out how Valerie had started merpeople hunting. He supposed the best way to accomplish both of those would to start with finding what the seal was looking for.

One problem at a time.

* * *

Right after school, Danny let Nemo lead him to where he wanted to go. He kept him supervised at all times and was puzzled when the tiny orange seal brought him back to the original scene of the crime. He was partially nervous because he didn't know how to explain to anyone why Danny _Fenton_ was walking with a small mythical sea creature, but thankfully nobody witnessed his trek across town. Finally, Danny arrived at the Axion Marine Research Facility. He stared up at the building skeptically, tuning out the waves from the ocean behind the building.

He turned to Nemo, who was entranced by the facility. "Axion?" Danny asked. "What you're looking for is in there?"

Nemo yipped in confirmation, and with a stride of risk, Danny presently formed a rough plan to conclude all the recent issues.

* * *

The sun was hanging heavy on the horizon when Danny, Sam, and Tucker watched Axion from the neighboring shore. Sam was wearing her purple bat backpack, Tucker was armed with his PDA, and Danny was nervously pacing on the beach. It was convenient that Axion was located on the ocean, but the water between him and the facility still scared him; what if the researchers saw him coming when he sneaked in to try to find what Nemo was looking for? There were so many 'what ifs' that scared him. He hadn't gotten this close to the human world as Danny Cyclone since he had that quarrel with that amulet that turned Paulina and Sam into Krakens. He was understandably anxious, but he had to ignore his worries for the moment. He had to do what was necessary.

He put on a semi-brave face and stared out over the water. That was his duty as Danny Cyclone, protecting Amity Cove from any mystical creatures that crawled out of the Atlantic.

"We're here," Sam announced indifferently. "Where's the sea puppy?"

Danny stepped closer towards the tide and whistled, causing big Nemo to surface from the water. He looked at Sam and Tucker questioningly, trying to decide if they were threats.

"Relax," Tucker said nervously, as Nemo gave a guttural growl akin to a dog's. "I'm on your side."

Sam crossed her arms, referring to his recent affinity with Valerie. "Yeah, so he says."

Tucker scowled, "Hey, I'm the one that knocked out the security cameras, remember?"

The three of them fell silent again, looking back at the facility looming across the short span of water. Danny coughed and broke the ice.

"Okay, good news. There's only one guard. Bad news, it's Valerie's dad."

" _Ouch,_ " Sam and Tucker sympathized together.

"So," Danny continued, "I think it's safer if I go up there myself."

Before either of his friends could react, he climbed up on a rock, stripped down to his underwear, and jumped into the water. He reemerged as Cyclone, and threw his now wet underwear onto the shore for later. The transformation was so quick this time, it felt like he'd torn something inside of him, but he knew that the feeling would fade into regular soreness within a few minutes.

Danny rested his elbows on the rock that he'd jumped off of to talk to Sam and Tucker. "That Fenton Fisher I brought should make a good leash," Danny said, pointing to his Dad's 'prized invention' that he'd stolen and thrown carelessly on the beach earlier. "You guys watch Nemo."

Using his hydrokinesis, he made the tide creep forward and bring him the Fenton Fisher. He tied one end of the Fenton Fisher around Nemo, and let Tucker tie the other end around a palm tree. Once that was done, Danny wordlessly disappeared into the water, heading for Axion at his top speed.

Sam rolled her eyes in annoyance at his sudden abandonment. "We will!" she called out in vain to the vacant surrounding waters.

The facility still wasn't repaired from the damage he and Nemo had inflicted earlier in the week, so Danny was able to simply swim through an empty tank into one of Axion's many labs. He looked around for a minute and sighed in resignation. He knew that Nemo was looking for something, he had just assumed it would be obvious. But now he was realizing that it would be near impossible to find what the selkie was so hopelessly searching for.

"I wish I knew what I was looking for," he said aloud. Apparently talking wasn't such a good idea, because as soon as he spoke, a ray of anti-merperson energy nearly grazed his head. He gasped at the sight of Valerie in her combative surf equipment. Her entrance into the tank of water had broken the glass and allowed them to pour into the neighboring room.

"Back to the scene of the crime?" she taunted.

Danny knew that Damon Gray worked here, he just hadn't expected her tag along to his job again, especially after what had just happened. He was _not_ counting on fighting the Red Surfer tonight.

"I really hate to do this," Danny started tentatively, "but-" he fired a hydroblast (pressured water energy), effortlesslt knocking the blaster out of her hands. However, Valerie refused to stay down and let her suit generate another (bigger) blaster from nothing.

"Oh, yeah?" she sounded _pissed_. "Well _I_ don't!"

She shot a tremendous torpedo at Danny, recklessly missing, which tore a new hole through a small section of Axion's roof. Tucker must've done too good of a job disabling the security, because nothing in the high-tech facility that there was just a vast hole ripped in the building. The force from the torpedo threw Danny out of the hole, and he had to struggle to swim back into the lab without crashing into the floor and falling unconscious.

Meanwhile, the blast from Valerie's careless damage was plenty noticeable from the outside. From across the shore, Tucker saw the explosion in Axion's roof and paled considerably. "What was that?"

Sam looked at him smugly, "Ten to one says it's your girlfriend."

Nemo suddenly started roaring, as loudly as possible for a seal to roar. He started jumping against the Fenton Fisher, and managed to pull up the roots to the palm tree he was tied to. Desperately, Sam and Tucker both tried to hold on to the tree to prevent him from escaping them, but the force of Nemo's pull was so strong that they only hopelessly ended up being dragged with him. Nemo dove into the water and began swimming at an unbelievable pace, and both Sam and Tucker did their best to keep their heads above the surface.

"This – is why – I prefer – _non-aquatic pets!_ " Sam screamed furiously.

Back in Axion, Valerie failed to acknowledge the damage she had inflicted in the ceiling and continued to shoot at Danny. In defense, he fired another hydroblast above her head.

"You're a pretty lousy shot," Valerie insulted. Moving out of the way again to readjust her aim.

"That's because I'm not trying to hit you!" he responded, trying to reason with her. "Can't we talk?"

She scoffed. "I'm done talking!"

She moved to where the setting on her high-tech surfboard changed, generating rocket blasters and propelling her through the water like a torrent, so that she was heading for a direct collision with Danny. Once he realized that she wasn't going to stop, Danny panicked and shielded himself in a huge ball of water, revolving around him with enough kinetic energy to prevent Valerie from smashing into him. The shield made her lose her balance, causing her to almost crash face first into a wall, before she corrected herself and stopped inches away. Seconds later, Nemo himself broke through the wall, towering over her threateningly.

Danny dropped everything and sought to save Valerie from getting hurt from Nemo. He swam upwards and grabbed her by the arms, sparing her from the monstrous seal. Consequently, she wasn't exactly appreciative of his rescue. She writhed and fought against his grip violently, attempting to pull at his hair but unable to grip his ethereal white locks because they were immersed in the water.

"Let go!" she screamed, her wrath unraveling her concise train of thought.

"Yeah," Danny's voice dripped with snarky endorsement, "you're welcome."

The tug of the water finally dominated, and Valerie slid out of Danny's webbed grip. Once she was free, she steadied her swimming, and pulled out another new blaster. Her next shot accidentally hit the emergency alarm, causing the entire facility to scream with sirens and erupt with red flashing lights. Across the street, Damon heard the alarm go off, and dropped his fast-food dinner in panic. "Valerie!"

Somewhere in her voice of reason (which she had long since suppressed) Valerie knew that the emergency alarm was _not_ a good thing. But she was so angry that nothing else mattered, she had to eradicate this merperson scum! She had to make him feel the extent of her misery and the inflicting end of her vengeance.

"You and your idiotic seal ruined everything! And you're gonna pay! You and _every_ merperson like you!" she shrieked.

Her next blast tore open a hole in the wall where there was a very large pipe. However, instead of adding to the flooding lab, the exposed plumbing fixture started to drain all the water away like a vacuum. Danny tried to escape the suction, but he'd already been caught by the water's relentless pulling. He was swallowed into the plumbing, ridding him of Valerie's sight.

"That oughta do it," she grinned. She knew he would be back, but for now her target was the other sea creature tormenting her.

Danny floated hopelessly down the old pipe and was deposited into an old research lab that looked like it hadn't been touched in at least a decade. He flopped pathetically on the floor, unable to swim up from the lack of water. From what he could tell, there wasn't much in the room itself, but an array of old shelves and weird rocks and things that looked like they'd been collected from the ocean floor.

"A hidden lab?" he inquired. "What the heck could they be keeping in here?"

He then noticed that his tail was touching some sort of authentic looking treasure chest. He wanted to get a better look, so he grabbed his tail with his hands and moved it off of the chest. He then wriggled closer so he could open it. He lifted the top of the chest, and discovered a glowing green necklace adorned with a rainbow King's Crown shell. It was the only thing in the moderately sized chest except for plain navy and brown pebbles.

Danny cautiously picked up the necklace to examine it. "Wait a minute," he muttered, "I think I saw this in Nereus's magic book..." his eyes widened in realization. "Could _this_ be what Nemo's been after?"

With a flush of realization and confidence, Danny pocketed the necklace, and summoned water with his hydrokinesis to get him out of the hidden room.

Back in the main room, Nemo floated over Valerie and she remained there, paralyzed. Until now, she hadn't realized how much like a beast the seal had resembled, but now a new-found fear was firmly gripping her heart.

But then, the tide turned. Literally.

Danny Cyclone had reappeared from wherever he had disappeared to, and was clutching something glowing in his right hand. At first, Valerie thought it was some sort of weapon, and had snapped back into fighting mode. But then, he turned towards his savage companion instead.

Danny smiled apprehensively at Nemo. "Hey boy!" he said. "I-is this what you've been looking for?"

He held up the necklace with the rainbow shell, causing Nemo to bark happily in reply. Then, he realized that Danny was holding _his_ possession, and Nemo responded with a territorial roar.

Danny jumped at the sudden hostility. "No, no, it's okay," he offered the necklace in Nemo's general direction. Danny adjusted his voice to be more endearing. "Does you want your collar? Huh? Oh does you? Here you go, now please just go home-"

He threw the necklace in the water, and it drifted slowly and ceremoniously fell around Nemo's neck.

"And stay there!" Danny finished.

Once he realized that he had his magical collar back, the selkie reverted back into it's small form. The glowing necklace then created a miniature underwater hurricane around Nemo, causing him to fade away in the typhoon. Danny then turned back to Valerie and decided to pull her back up to the surface since he could sense that the small pocket of oxygen in her tank was steadily depleting (he could sense air pockets in water as well as water itself).

"Look," Danny started to explain, "I know you're angry, but that's not my pet, and I'm sorry about whatever happened to you," he paused. "Not _all_ merpeople are evil."

She stared at him blankly, almost convincing Danny she was about to offer a truce. Then, she snarled her harsh reply. "Yeah? Well not all humans are saps, huh!"

Since they were so close, she punched him hard in the stomach and shot a wrist blaster at him, causing him to gasp in shock.

"Goodbye, merboy," she declared ominously.

Of course, that's when Damon opened the door to the laboratory they were in, causing the water level in the room to dramatically lower.

"Valerie?" her dad asked.

Her jaw dropped open in terrified comprehension. "Oh, no! My Dad! I can't let him see me like this!"

Danny realized that this was his only chance to escape and took the opportunity. "I'm sorry," he said again, "but I can't help you there."

Before Damon could see him, he found Axion's exit to the ocean, and dove out into the water. Sam and Tucker, who'd been observing from the hallway for the past few minutes, also fled.

* * *

After most of their battles with mystical beings from the ocean, the trio continued to live their lives as normal as possible. So the next day at school, they found themselves sitting at their normal table, eating their normal lunch, surrounded by their normal peers – as usual. There was nothing to indicate what had occurred the previous day at Axion except for the obvious damages, which had been publicly attested to a 'rampant seal'. Team Cyclone all thought it was ironic.

"Know where the seal went?" Tucker asked, shoveling a scoop of gray mashed potatoes.

Danny took a bite of his burger. "Nope."

Sam looked at him apprehensively before squinting her eyes interrogatively. "Are you gonna play it a little safer now that ' _Valerie the Merfolk Slayer_ ' is around?"

The automatically dropped the topic when Valerie nonchalantly passed their table, holding another bag lunch. She refused to look at any of them, and continued on her own path, independently.

"Yep," Danny answered.

Valerie exited the cafeteria and resumed her walk to her locker. She opened it as normal to find another package, similar to the one she had received earlier in the week.

Danny looked at his friends pensively. "I just wish I knew where she got those weapons..."

She opened the new box with a dangerous smirk. The locker door slammed shut.


	23. Cold

Day Twenty-Five: Cold

Genre: General

Words: 1063

* * *

Like any regular person, Danny hated colds. He used to get them all the time before the accident, at least six to eight times a year. Jazz suggested that it was probably a weakened immune system due to too much exposure from his parents' ectoplasmic experiments from a young age. Ironically, it was one of their experiments that ultimately strengthened his immune system from any kind of cold or common sickness.

Or so he had thought. Apparently, while he was resistant to most human diseases, he could still get ghost sicknesses. Which were even _worse_.

At first, Danny had just been feeling a little more fatigued than usual, which he had assumed was due to a lack of sleep. After all, ever since everyone had found out about his secret, he'd had a lot more time to balance his sleep, studies, and ghost hunting. It wasn't _that_ big of a deal that he'd slacked on one night of good rest, he could always catch back up. He was used to worse anyway.

But then, the fatigue started causing power glitches. And a runny nose. Glowing snot wasn't fun at all.

Though, the power glitches were what initially concerned Danny. He was tripping through his own feet, having momentary gravity slip-ups, and accidentally turning various body parts invisible in the middle of class, which led to him getting in trouble with Lancer for being a 'distraction'. Danny had tried to convince his teacher that he wasn't using his powers on purpose, but Lancer had only glared at him and told him to "-keep the Phantom business out of my classroom unless somebody's in danger, Mr. Fenton."

He wasn't truly concerned about the minor slip-ups he'd had all day until it endangered him during a fight. When he was facing off against a weaker ghost cobra, he'd tried to use his intangibility to dodge the snake's strike. However, his core wouldn't respond to him, and Danny's right arm got bit by the cobra. After about a minute, he was unable to move that arm at all due to some sort of paralyzing venom. He tried to use his left arm to throw an ectoblast, but instead of an a normal ectoblast, he accidentally _way_ too much energy and missed the snake altogether. The super-charged ecto-explosion ended up pulverizing ten feet of concrete on the road below. Simultaneously, Danny suddenly lost his ability to fly and almost fell one hundred feet, if it hadn't been for Valerie swooping in and saving him. She'd been watching his hopeless fight and caught him with her jet-sled, put him safely on the ground, and finished the fight herself.

Later, Valerie demanded that Danny go home immediately and skip the rest of the school day because he was clearly in no condition to do anything for whatever reason. After the scare he'd had from almost falling, he hesitantly agreed and let her fly him to FentonWorks.

When Danny finally explained to his parents what had been happening to him all day, needless to say, they flipped out. It hadn't been that long since the reveal, so they were really concerned that his core was becoming unstabilized or something really major. He reassured them that whatever it was, worse things had happened, and the power glitches happened every once in a while. But Jack and Maddie Fenton would hear none of it.

"You're going straight to the lab, right now, young man," Maddie demanded. "We need to find out what's happening with you. I don't want to ignore this and have it be a really big problem later. You have to understand, Danny, you worry us a lot because scientifically speaking, there's never been anything like you."

"I know," Danny rolled his eyes. "Being a halfa makes me an anomaly and all that. I'm telling you though, it probably isn't _that_ big of a deal."

"We just care about you, Danno," Jack added. "We want to make sure that you're healthy. No experiments or anything, we promise."

Danny sighed, "I get it. But it's like I said, it probably isn't really anything life threatening."

After a series of non-invasive tests in the lab, Danny's parents had concluded one thing.

"Huh," Jack said. "There really isn't anything wrong with you. But..." he squinted his eyes to read a monitor, "you might have some sort of ghost cold."

Danny frowned. "Are you saying I'm just sick?"

"That's what it looks like," Maddie confirmed. "But it's definitely ghost related."

"Alright," Danny said. He sneezed, leaving a green tint on his hand, but presently ignored it. "I'll just take it easy for a few days and go heavy on the medicine."

"Danny," Maddie started hesitantly. It sounded like he wasn't really taking the news very seriously. "When you say 'take it easy', what exactly do you mean?"

"Uh, like just not overexert myself and only fight ghosts if it's someone I can take easily, like the Box Ghost or-"

"Absolutely not," Maddie interrupted. "You're staying in bed until you get completely better, young man. I'll call the school, and us and the Red Huntress can worry about the ghosts."

Danny groaned irritably. His eyes started glowing green and Maddie and Jack couldn't tell if it was because he was annoyed or if it was an effect of the cold. "But I can handle it-"

"No, you can't. You only got out of that fight mainly unscathed today because someone else caught you from falling out of the sky and captured it. _And_ not to mention the venom we had to drain from your arm," Maddie crossed her arms authoritatively. "Now, you walk up to your room right now and I'll bring some herbal tea and cold medicine."

The mother and son stared at each other for a long minute before Danny finally looked away, surrendering to his mother's will.

"Fine," he muttered, walking up the stairs. "But if anyone gets hurt, I don't care what you say. I'm going out there and fighting."

As he put his foot on the last step, he accidentally turned intangible and tripped.

"Danny!" his parents called, worriedly.

"It's happened before, I'll be okay," he said nonchalantly before pulling himself up and continuing to his room.

Jack and Maddie looked at each other uneasily before Maddie left to go make Danny his tea, while Jack cleaned up the lab equipment.

* * *

 **A/N This was supposed to longer and have an actual meaningful plot, but today I was so destroyed after the Trollhunters Part 3 release this was the most I could write. No spoilers, but holy crap I. am. _shaking_. I've been on an emotional roller-coaster binge today and I'm still trying to figure out what the hell I'm thinking. Also, yesterday was the last day of my Freshman year of High School too so there's that. **


	24. Imprisoned

Day Twenty-Six: Imprisoned

Genre: Angst

Words: 2230

 **This one's sort of experimental with 1** **st** **POV because I'm not used to writing with it, but please bear with me until the end.**

* * *

Maybe I was used to waking up with a pain at the back of my head, but the part where I was chained up in the FentonWorks basement was new. I knew the layout of the lab well enough to recognize where I was after a few moments to allow myself to process my surroundings. After it occurred to me _where_ I was, then I allowed myself to panic because _I can't remember how I got here and that's definitely not a good sign, is it?_

What had I been doing before this? I was at school... and then I got a bad grade on my test, like usual... and then I went to lunch and... there was a ghost attack? That had to be right, wasn't it? Yeah, there was a ghost attack during lunch, so I went and changed and then...

Jack and Maddie started shooting at me from the ground. Once I realized they were really shooting at me to incapacitate, I tried dodging, but it wasn't really helpful. One of their shots grazed me, and caused me to crash about fifty feet onto a patch of grass. I laid there for a while, and everything was just so cloudy and then... something stabbed my arm, which meant that was probably some kind of drug.

Alright, so they drugged me and brought me to their lab. That doesn't just scream _'I'm totally going to die!'_ But, I might as well give them the benefit of the doubt, after all. I know that Jack and Maddie can be good people when they don't have their heads up their asses about ghosts all the time.

Once I mustered enough energy, I tried to resist my chains, which were connected to the wall behind me. Despite how much I tried to force myself out of them, the chains still dug tightly into my wrists, indicating that struggling wasn't working at all. I also suddenly noticed that when I passed out, I remained transformed, which was atypical, but incredibly fortunate. I couldn't afford an identity reveal right now, no matter how sketchy the current situation was.

"Jack honey," I could hear Maddie's voice, but I couldn't see her anywhere, "it's awake."

"Oh, great," replied the overenthusiastic man, "I can't wait to ask it some questions!"

I frowned at the rude usage of 'it' as my pronoun. I was literally _right_ here, they could at least act like they weren't talking about me like I was some kind of inanimate object.

My critical musing was interrupted when Jack leaped out from beside me and grabbed the chains that were shackled to my hands. It was raised about an inch in the air, bringing my face to his. "Hello," he said, before letting my chains drop. My butt hit the floor unceremoniously and I hissed in discomfort, remembering the long fall I took earlier. Jack ignored my apparent pain and looked at me thoughtfully. "You know, you make a very convincing act, I'll give you that."

"Act?" I asked. "What act?"

"That you're in pain," Maddie offered. "That you actually care about the welfare about this town and it's citizens. That you're like _us_ ," she finished distastefully.

I could only blink incomprehensibly in response, "I'm sorry. What?" I paused to iterate my point. "Like, what does that mean exactly?"

"You've been pretending to be Amity's hero," Jack said bluntly. "But you're not. You're just a fraud who get's... something, from acting like you care. But you don't care, because you're mentally incapable of such diverse emotions. We know what you are. Don't you get it, that you can finally drop the silly charade? You can't fool us Fentons."

I had no idea what they were talking about, but it sounded like they knew something I didn't at the moment. Apparently they were under the assumption that I didn't actually care, and was some emotionless actor who only hunted ghosts for attention. I don't know what I did recently to drive them to this notion, but whatever suddenly triggered them had definitely come out of the blue. It was a blind-sighted assumption, and it made me mad that they would jump to conclusions and tie me up before asking me my side of the story. My fury expanded within me, combined with my frustration from lack of control over my situation.

"Who're you to say that I can't care about Amity Park?" I settled on asking, defensively. "You don't know anything about me! And what gives you the right to lock me up? I have rights, now let me free!"

Maddie snorted, "Please, you have no rights here."

I narrowed my eyes, making sure that my anger was visible in my expression. Who the hell did she think she was? First, she drugged and kidnapped me, and then she reduces me to nothing more than some objectified prisoner? As Amity Park's protector, I wasn't going to stand for that disrespect so I spoke clearly. "Say that to my face," I challenged with soft rage. She wasn't going to suppress me.

Maddie grinned, aware of my anger, but disinterested. "You have no rights!" she declared, again.

What a... _bitch_.

"Why are you doing this to me?" I asked, taking a different approach with my inquiry.

"Well, isn't that obvious?" Jack asked. "You're a threat to Amity Park, so we've captured you here for detainment and potential study."

I scowled, failing to refrain from making a sarcastic remark. "Oh, yeah, like your main defense against the ghosts is Amity's biggest 'threat'."

"I wouldn't say you're the biggest threat out there," Maddie countered, "but you're definitely one of them. You've been acting like you're human, when you're not." She turned around and thoughtlessly trailed her fingers over a nearby invention. "All you are is just a danger to everyone around you, which is why after we experiment on you, we're going to dispose of you."

My eyes widened. Suddenly this situation had gone from irritating to a lot more serious than I had realized. They were talking about legitimate experimenting. On me? And they were actually for real about it? Woah, woah, woah this _wasn't good. I had to get out of here now and – holy crap they're going to kill me and I still don't know why_.

"That doesn't explain why you're doing this, though!" I protested. "You're talking about murder! Why would you even want to experiment on me? That's disgusting!"

They weren't supposed to be doing this to _me._ Jack and Maddie shared a disbelieving look before turning back to explain to me like I was some sort of dumb child.

"Because you're a ghost, and that's a good enough reason," Maddie crossed her arms. "You have no idea how much data we can pull from an ecto-entity like you."

My mind reeled. They thought I was a ghost, like an actual dead full ghost! Of course, that explained everything. Somehow they had gotten it in their heads, and honestly, how could I blame them? From their perspective, there were many obvious indicators that I looked like some sort of ghost, but there was also the very clear part of me that was human. If I could tell them the truth, show them that they were wrong, then they'd realize their mistake. They'd realize that I'm not some lab rat! That I'm _human_ and definitely not some heartless ghost.

I closed my eyes to focus and gave the mental command to reverse my transformation, to go back to just regular human me. It wouldn't budge. I was trapped in this form, for some unknown reason, and in my current predicament, there wasn't much else I could do to change. Maybe the drug they gave me prevented me from going back to normal, or maybe something got hurt when I fell and this was some sort of self-preservation mode. Whatever it was, I was stuck the way I was.

My only remaining option: beg and hope they believed me.

 _(I don't wanna die I don't wanna die I don't wanna)_

"I – I'm not a ghost!" I tried to explain. "I mean, sure, it might look like it from a certain angle and I know I fight the other ghosts, but I... I'm human! I swear! I'd change back right now if I could, but under this exterior is just a regular teenager trying to help this town! Please, please believe me. I don't want to be experimented on!"

Jack's gaze was oddly cold and calculating for the usually lighthearted man. "Then explain how you have an ectosignature."

I gulped in fear. That question completely caught me off guard. How could I explain that?

"It's an inadequate liar," Maddie decided. "It talks too much, too. With a voice like that, we'll definitely have to use a gag for the experiments. Don't you agree, Jack?"

"Probably, for the best," Jack nodded. His eyes gleamed with unparalleled excitement. "I can't wait to tear it apart molecule by molecule."

 _God_ , _please tell me this isn't happening!_

There was a noise. Not from Jack or Maddie, but somewhere upstairs, inside FentonWorks. I flinched against my chains, before realizing what that meant, allowing a spark of hope to ignite within my chest.

Now someone was coming down the stairs – could it be? Was I being rescued from the horrifying clutches of Jack and Maddie and their really _not so fun_ obsession with tearing things apart from the inside? I took a deep breath in anticipation and almost exploded in relief when the new figure made itself known.

Danny Fenton appeared at the bottom of the stairwell, looked around the lab questioningly, and turned to his parents with a _really_ confused frown. "Mom... Dad...? Why do you have the Red Huntress tied up in the lab?"

Maddie and Jack turned away from me and their expressions mellowed.

"Oh, hey sweetie," Maddie said. "Don't worry about that. Your father and I were doing ectoplasmic scans of your school earlier today, and we discovered that the Red Huntress has an ectosignature, meaning she must be a ghost! It's so disappointing, since we thought she was such a good human hunter. Turns out it's just another fake 'hero', like Phantom."

"Mom," Danny said slowly, "I think you _really_ screwed up. The Red Huntress _is_ human."

I think at that point I would've cried. Danny didn't believe his parents for a second and stood up for me instead. There was no way they were going to be able to experiment on me now.

"Don't be silly, Danno," Jack said. "We know a ghost when we see one!"

Danny crossed his arms skeptically as if he was having his own ironic epiphany, but his facial expression instantly neutralized and he yielded to his parents.

"You said you scanned an ectosignature from her?" Danny asked, tentatively attempting to explain. "Well, that's not from her. That's from her suit itself. It was made by a ghost, so it uses a ghost's ectosignature to function – but she's completely, one-hundred percent human underneath."

His explanation was surprisingly accurate for someone who should know little to nothing about me as the Red Huntress, but I couldn't complain. He was right, and what the Fenton parents needed was the truth. Because even I told them everything, weren't going to believe me. Their son on the other hand... they'd trust him in an instant.

"Wait..." Jack said, understanding dawning on him, "so that's not a ghost? It's a girl. We tied up some random girl instead of a ghost?"

"Uh huh," I confirmed, bitterly. "And I tried telling you I was human, but you didn't listen. So, may I please be let go now?"

"We – we imprisoned a human...?" Maddie whispered, almost broken. "How'd we-?"

"I'll get you out of there," Danny was weirdly the calmest person in the room. I don't know how that boy did it, having to put up with all his parents' horribly reckless mistakes, like almost dissecting one of his classmates. Well, technically Danny didn't know that I was his classmate, but still. It was strange how unaffected by this he was.

He was very accurate with getting me out of my chains, almost like it was a practiced action. He stared at me sympathetically and whispered, "I'm sorry my parents dragged you into this, Val."

My blood ran cold. How did he-?

"You should go now, we can talk about this later. I promise," he said, looking back at his parents behind him.

Too stupefied to speak, I managed to re-summon my jet-sled, and flew out through the Specter Speeder tunnel to the outside. Jack and Maddie didn't try to protest my exit, and I didn't look back at them at all when I left. I'd be okay if I never saw either of their faces again, considering what they had almost been prepared to do to me because they underestimated how my armor worked. Luckily, I had a savior who already knew everything, somehow.

That was the other thing; I didn't know how Danny knew my secret, but I supposed it was probably for the better. It didn't make me feel secure knowing that my ex-boyfriend knew about my ghost hunting activities, but I'm glad he was there for me when his parents had almost experimented on me because they thought I was a ghost...

Funny how life works out sometimes, isn't it?

* * *

 **Pretty bold of you to assume that Danny's the only teen ghost hunter who can be imprisoned.**


	25. Caught in Their Cameras

Day Twenty-Seven: Exposed

Genre: Drama

Words: 3899

* * *

Everybody knew Danny Fenton was absolutely, hopelessly afraid of ghosts. Many speculated that it was years of trauma that had been drilled into him since he was a baby. His parents were ghost hunters, so all his bedtime stories were most likely about the scary specters and all things that went bump in the night. So naturally, he grew up fearing it. There were a few years in middle-school where he seemed indifferent to the notion of ghosts, but once highschool began, his fear of ghosts was instantly rekindled.

Danny's Freshman year of highschool was when ghosts made themselves known to everyone in Amity Park. For years, the Fenton parents had been ridiculed, but now people were faced with the evidence that they had been right all along. Ghosts were a reality, and they were all over the place. And because of that, Danny grew to be a complete mess.

It was normal to be scared of ghosts, but Danny was almost notoriously cowardly to the point that it was ridiculous! Danny would run away from the freaking Box Ghost, if that said anything. Everybody in Amity had learned that the Box Ghost was simply a joke, nothing to be feared, but Danny still fled every time the annoying spirit showed up.

And that was just the tip of the iceberg. Danny would cut class if he even had a reason to suspect that there was a ghost nearby, and usually there was nothing even there! If a ghost attacked the cafeteria, Danny would be the only person to run out the doors, while everyone else had learned to hide under the tables. Not to mention that he couldn't even be in the same vicinity with the town's hero, Danny Phantom, for some unknown reason.

Overall, Danny Fenton was nowhere to be seen when ghosts arrived because he was terrified of them. It was a well-known fact, one that even his friends Sam and Tucker confirmed. He was irrationally scared of Amity's strange occurrences, and he himself wouldn't deny it.

Which is why Dash believed Danny to be the perfect target for a fake ghost attack. His reaction would be priceless, after all. Everybody else at Casper High had grown immune to the shock of a ghost attack, but Danny was pathetically wimpy and vulnerable. He was practically _begging_ to be pranked! Which is why Dash called up a bunch of his friends, and took the liberty to stage an artificial ghost attack, specially for his favorite little geek.

They had to put all their heads together to figure out how to do it, but Dash and his crew formulated a plan on how to pull it off. To succeed, they would have to actually get help from some real ghosts, but Dash was confident that it would work. There were many ghosts who liked scaring humans, so he figured that it wouldn't be too difficult to find one that would cooperate with their plan.

Apparently one of the guys had heard about some shapeshifter ghost that liked to mess with people, and don't ask Dash how, but they somehow managed to get in contact with him. The whole situation was sketchy as hell, but it was worth it. The ghost called himself Amorpho, and it took a _lot_ of persuasion on Dash's end, but the specter finally agreed.

"I don't know if I'm up for this," Amorpho said. "Last time I was in Amity, Phantom made me promise to keep my business away from this town, or he'd throw me back into the Ghost Zone. If he finds out-"

"He won't," Dash reassured. "It's just some dumb kid in my grade that we're scaring for fun. All you have to do is change into something really scary and he'll wet his pants! Phantom will never have to even find out, I promise!"

"I hope you're not pulling my leg," Amorpho muttered, "but I'll go along with it. What else am I going to do with my afterlife if I don't scare a few teenagers here and there, eh?"

The next day they set their plan in motion. Dash was the director of the prank, and told everyone else what to do. Kwan was given the job to actually lead Danny to the location of the prank, which was Casper's basement. Michael and Tanner had pulled the short straw, and were supposed to ensure that Danny couldn't escape the room, which only had one exit. Meanwhile, Dale and Dylan were tasked with live streaming the prank on Facebook and Instagram, respectively. They were the only ones who were going to stay in the basement the entire time, and would be hiding behind a cluster of wooden crates. All that was left was to get Danny in the picture.

Around fifth period on Friday, Dash and the other guys found Danny outside of his locker like usual. They could've just _thrown_ him in the basement, but he had to be unsuspecting. They had to give him a reason to believe he was 'safe' until the actual practical joke. Or, in other words, stealth. So after Fenturd's daily beating, Dash also stole his backpack. It would come into play later, and Dash felt ingenious for developing such a complex plan.

As soon was class was over, Kwan solely cornered Danny directly outside of Mr. Lancer's classroom. Thankfully, Sam was in another class and Tucker had already made a beeline for his locker, so Danny was all alone for once. It was a rare occurrence and Kwan felt more confident due to his stroke of luck.

"Hey, Fenton," Kwan said, approaching the suddenly skittish boy.

"What now?" Danny rolled his eyes. "You've already taken my backpack today. Come to steal my shoes too, or something? Just get it over with."

"That was Dash," Kwan said, convincingly, "not me. I – uh, actually know where your backpack is. That's why I came over here. I'll help you find it," Kwan offered. He was believably the nicest of the A-Listers to Danny and his friends, which is why he was chosen. But even though Kwan was the nicest, he still had an appreciation for watching others be humiliated. It was natural.

"So... you're not gonna beat me up again?" Danny confirmed, with a hint of lingering distrust. He knew that Kwan had no reason to help him. "Why? You're Dash's friend."

Kwan fake sighed, "Yeah, but I can still help you out, right? Maybe you don't deserve _everything_ we do to you."

He was stringing him along so easily it was almost funny.

"I guess that makes sense," Danny decided. "So where did Dash throw my stuff?"

Kwan tried to mask his grin, "Follow me."

He led him down to the stairwell to the basement, and Danny followed silently. He probably didn't know what to say to Kwan, and Kwan was grateful because small talk would be even more awkward. Finally, they got to the entrance to the basement and Kwan slowly and loudly opened the door, just to give Dale and Dylan enough of a warning to make sure they were completely hidden.

"Dash says he chucked your backpack down here," Kwan said, "but I'm not sure exactly where. My guess would be over there." He pointed in the opposite direction from where his friends were hiding.

"Thanks, Kwan," Danny said. Kwan waited for him to find it. They'd purposely left it in a really obvious place so Danny didn't have to look around much.

Now, it was time for the next step of the plan.

As Danny ceremoniously held up his found backpack, Kwan's phone made a loud noise, and he pretended to look at it in surprise.

"Oh, no!" Kwan said., reading the fake text. "Dash said that the entire upper floor of the building is being attacked by ghosts! It's awful!"

"Really?" Danny tilted his head, his eyes growing slightly alarmed. "I didn't..."

"I don't know what to do!" Kwan monologued, cutting him off. "How about you stay down here, while I go look how bad it is up there?" It was a perfect excuse to confine Danny in the basement. Kwan would be able to leave the basement, while Danny would cower in the basement, afraid of getting caught up in the attack upstairs. Unbeknownst to him, Kwan would lock his only exit on the way out, and Danny would be stuck.

Thankfully, Danny fell into the trap. Kwan watched with satisfaction as a look of worry etched across the boy's face. "Th – that sounds good! You get out of here, make sure people are okay, then get out of the building! Don't even worry about me, I'll be okay down here. Just make sure _you_ get out, okay?"

His adamance was pitiful, and Kwan left the basement without trying to persuade Danny further. He'd expected Danny to at least pretend like he wasn't scared, but apparently he was so much of a coward that he was past acting.

Once Kwan had cleared the area, Danny didn't bother keeping up his terrified facade. It was odd. According to Kwan, from Dash, there were a bunch of ghosts upstairs, but Danny's ghost sense hadn't even gone off yet. Had they been lying to him? No, Danny didn't want to take the chance. He had to transform and make sure there weren't any threats, and if there were, he'd have to get rid of them. Thankfully, he'd gotten his backpack back, which had his Fenton Thermos in it. He'd have been screwed without it.

Quickly, Danny emptied the contents of his bag and fished out the thermos. He was about to transform, but he lost focus on his core when he felt his ghost sense finally go off. Aha! So it'd just been a little delayed, and there was _an_ actual ghostly threat somewhere in the school. That was weird, because usually he was pretty accurate at ghost detection, but he supposed maybe the ghosts hadn't been as close to the basement as they'd been before, and that's why he only felt it then.

Before he could try to transform into Phantom again, an ectoblast appeared out of nowhere and struck him between his feet. Danny backed up reflexively, and immediately took a defensive stance. "Show yourself," he demanded, gripping his thermos tightly.

A familiar face materialized before his eyes. Danny questionably lowered his guard, before remembering that he'd just been attacked. He regained his composure and narrowed his eyes dubiously.

"Amorpho? What the hell are you doing here? I thought I told you to stay away from Amity, not to mention that I was under the impression that we had a truce?"

Amorpho looked at him dumbly, his eyes widening with every word, "Oh my Pariah, they didn't tell me it'd be you! I – I swear I didn't mean to, Billy! Don't hurt me!"

Everyone listening in on the conversation were confused. Dash and Kwan were watching remotely together from the feed Dale and Dylan was uploading, meanwhile Michael and Tanner were listening at the basement's door. There were also various students watching across Amity Park online, who'd randomly come across the live video.

Not only was Danny Fenton standing up to a ghost, strangely unfazed by it, but the ghost in question was also afraid of Danny! Fenton was supposed to be the number one scaredy-cat in all of Casper High, yet he was acting almost like some kind of ghost hunter! Did that mean that he was only pretending to run off and be scared most of the time? Also, Danny and the ghost were reacting to each other like they knew each other, so what was that even about? The entire ordeal was just... _off_. Something weird was going on, and nobody felt comfortable seeing this new side of Danny Fenton.

"If you didn't 'mean to', then why did you intentionally throw an ectoblast at me?" Danny asked, threateningly. "I was always unsure about letting you go, and I'm starting to change my mind..."

"No, you don't understand! Don't change, you're-"

Danny's hands glowed with green fire, causing everyone watching to do a double take. Many people were questioning if this was a real live stream, or some kind of film project. Because this certainly couldn't actually be happening... Danny Fenton exhibiting superpowers didn't make sense. Dash and his crew on the other hand, observed with a new-found fear that was gradually escalating to something akin to horror.

Danny raised a fiery fist and aimed it towards the opposing ghost, and a jet of energy knocked Amorpho two feet out of the air. It wasn't a serious attack, but more like a warning shot. Since Amorpho was now off-guard, Danny raised his arms in the air, extinguishing the ecto-energy around his hands, and clearly recited, "Going ghost!"

Many people watched in fascination as a white halo formed around Danny's waist, illuminating the entire area and disturbing the white balance of the cellphone cameras. The fuzziness of the cameras made it difficult to see exactly what was happening, but the general transformation was discernible. The formation of light separated to change Danny Fenton into... Amity's infamous, ghostly superhero, Danny Phantom. His expression didn't even change, and many people found themselves mentally reevaluating the two boys, trying to convince themselves that they were still two different people. But they had seen. And he was exposed.

Dash and Kwan stared at the footage in shock. Fenton... was Phantom? Wait, wait, wait. _Fenton_ _was Phantom!_ They'd bullied him! And – and so much more, for God knows how long. But Phantom was a ghost, and Danny was supposed to be just some kid. Fenton was the kid who ran away during ghost attacks, who was afraid of ghosts! But he wasn't... Because he was a ghost and that was his alibi to go _stop_ ghost attacks, wasn't it? He was just faking being afraid of ghosts, because how could he harbor fear for what he was?

Dash resigned to the floor with a numb fervor. Kwan continued to glue himself to his phone. What was real? Who was Danny Fenton? Was Phantom their hero? Nothing made sense. And nothing continued to make sense and nobody knew what was happening anymore when all sense faded into oblivion.

Danny flew up, raising his fist again, and his eyes churned even more dangerously. This was a common tactic Phantom used in his fights, but everything was still different.

(Was that kid dead or alive? What _was_ he, anyway?)

Amorpho didn't react much to Danny's transformation, and tentatively backed up. "Look, Billy, I – I don't want to go back to the Ghost Zone."

"Yeah? You came back into my town, after we agreed that you'd stay away," Danny started.

"Let me-"

Danny ignored him. "And what's the first thing you do?" he asked rhetorically. "Attack me."

Amorpho grew frustrated and changed forms to collect Phantom's attention. He changed into a familiar figure, Sam Manson, who faced Danny with genuine red eyes.

"Billy, if I may explain?"

Danny's eyes placated at the sight of his friend, and let the energy from his hand dissipate. "Only if you stop mimicking Sam," he said.

Amorpho changed back into his regular form and shot at a group of crates. The crates fell over to reveal Dale and Dylan, who were timidly recording everything on their phones. Danny's jaw dropped open, and before anyone could say anything, Amorpho obliterated the cellphones, cutting off the live streaming.

"What the hell?" Danny said, floating down to be at equal eye level with the two revealed jocks. "H – have they been there the entire time." Amorpho cringed and Dale and Dylan stared at Danny, completely mesmerized, yet somewhat afraid. Danny realized that they must have witnessed his transformation and began to panic. "Oh, no no no no no. This isn't... oh, _shit_."

Amorpho tried to explain, even though Danny was mid panic attack and could only half comprehend what he was saying. "-they told me that they were pranking some human. I would've never – your secret!"

Danny couldn't care less about Amorpho when he was face to face with two of his classmates who now knew what he was... there was no doubt that they would tell everyone. He clenched his fists, grabbing a handful of white hair. Danny was doomed. His secret had just been peeled away as easily as a band-aid, leaving everything beneath exposed for the world to see. Danny's breath accelerated. He was unnatural, he was a _freak_ , and now two new people knew it.

The effect that had rendered Dale and Dylan silent, gradually wore off and they regained their reasoning. Obviously, they were also mentally freaking out, but they were in better condition than the hyperventilating ghost boy.

"Holy shit!" Dale whispered. His thoughts poured out of his head until his mouth sloppily blurted them out. "Fenton is Phantom and- and- and _what_?"

The verbal statement from Dale finally reigned Danny into coming back into reality. He wasn't in any condition to be, though.

Danny let go of his hair and subtly pinched himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming. It was a habit Sam had taught him because of his recent increase of nightmares. He firmly locked eyes with Dale and Dylan. "You can't tell _anyone_."

It was hopeless, of course they would tell people. Danny knew it. Guys like them had no reasons to keep secrets. Why would they care if some freak got carted off to the government to be some kind of lab rat?

Danny was confused when they both responded with looks of horror. Wait, no, that was fear. They were afraid of him. That made sense too, he supposed, he was a ghost – both Phantom and Fenton, and they probably just realized he could hurt them. They had the option to be afraid, so of course they were going to be scared of him.

"We..." Dylan whispered, shaken to his core, "we were live streaming. All of it. Didn't know. Was a joke. S'posed to scare you... and. _Lot_ of people saw."

Nothing happened. The words simply didn't register within him. A... live stream? Like on the internet? His secret had already been put online, that quickly? It was impossible to process, ridiculous to process. He'd just panicked about two people finding out. However, they'd already revealed Danny to everyone in one go and – and was the floor getting closer? Maybe?

Everyone. Who was everyone supposed to be? His fellow peers? Amity Park? The government agents about to track him down? Whatever, they all knew now. Or would know very, very soon. The knowledge that Fenton was Phantom had just exploded. His normal life was compromised, and now Danny Fenton would never be able to be human again. If he didn't get captured by the government in the next few days, he'd just be known as 'that ghost-kid'. His parents, too. People would tell his parents, and they would be forced to accept the news that their son wasn't even human anymore.

He let his arms collapse and nothing was holding him up from the floor anymore. How pathetic. Everything was over. Would he even see school again? What about Sam or Tucker? Their parents would probably keep both them locked away at home once they realized what they were actually doing at night instead of studying.

This was too fast. His head was too warm for him to be a ghost. Maybe his brain was melting. That'd probably be a preferable fate opposed to what was waiting for him. He didn't want to think about what _could_ be waiting for him.

So he wouldn't think, he just had to move. Quickly. Before the word spread, before people would come after him. He had to get out of the school, probably out of the city too. He shouldn't go to Vlad, people knew he was associated with his parents. Vlad would probably betray him for his own safety anyway. He didn't know anyone outside of Amity beside his Aunt Alicia, so he'd have to improvise. Just like the chase across the country with Freakshow. Except, alone, this time. He wouldn't drag Sam and Tucker into this again, he'd never be so cruel to his friends twice.

Danny let himself be pulled into the invisible realm, and he ignored Dale and Dylan's appalled gasps. He didn't know where he was going yet, but he figured he'd still have time to grab a bag of essentials from his house. In fact, he already had an emergency bag packed for this exact situation. Again, it was just something he'd learned to expect from the Freakshow incident. He'd fly into his room quickly, phase out, and hopefully he wouldn't have to face his parents at all.

When he got to his street, it was completely deserted. He didn't see the GAV either, so that meant his parents weren't there. Maybe they'd seen it on the internet already and had raced out to find him at school. That idea was almost three times as worse.

He went in his room, and there was instantly a gun at his head. There was no attacker, but it was an automated defense from his house's anti-creep mode. Instinctively, Danny changed back to human so he wouldn't be shot. Since the anti-creep mode was activated, that definitely indicated that Jack and Maddie had heard about Danny, so they'd left the house defended while they were out.

Having to change back to human form was definitely going to slow him down, but he had no choice until he got outside of FentonWorkds. With as much energy as he could muster, Danny propelled himself to the other side of his room and looked for his emergency bag that he had stashed in the back of his closet. He rummaged through the messy closet before getting a firm grip on the bag, and began running down the stairs. It was then that he realized he was at a crossroad. He could either hide somewhere in the human world, outside of Amity Park, or he could temporarily hide inside the Ghost Zone. He'd packed enough snacks to last him probably about three weeks in there, so it was a possible option. But he didn't have time to weigh his decision; Danny had to move as fast as possible.

He made a choice. The Ghost Zone was too risky, and he'd probably do better hiding out in the woods or in a big city where no one would recognize him. Plus, he was still alive, which the Ghost Zone wasn't suitable for.

But as Danny made his way towards the front door of his house, he found himself instantly regretting his on the spot decision. Only twenty feet away were around ten GIW agents, all of them armed with blasters that were trained on him within seconds. Even if he transformed, there was little opportunity for him to escape this.

There was a loud clicking noise, and before he realized what had happened, there was a pair of ectocuffs around both of his wrists. He wrestled against his bonds, but the butt of an agent's gun came down over his eyes and he felt his knees pound against the pavement. Everything else lost sensation, and he was missing.


	26. Another Day Exposing Fenton?

Day Twenty-Eight/Nine: Roleplaying/Season Four

Genre: Humor

Words: 1360

 **No Phantom Planet, and if Wes was developed as an actual character.**

* * *

Wes Weston was absolutely fed up with everybody at Casper High. Because honestly, what the heck? Were they all blind, or something? Or was he the only person who wasn't just mindbogglingly stupid? He seriously couldn't tell, because at this point it was just pathetically sad how easily everybody was deceived.

Everybody thought Wes was crazy, but in reality, it was the opposite. _They_ were crazy for ignoring the truth! He'd been telling everyone for months, that Danny Fenton was Danny Phantom, but would anybody listen? No. They all just wrote him off as some sort of conspiracy theorist or just another rambling idiot.

Maybe, Wes admits, he may have come to have earned his reputation, but at this point it was just getting ridiculous. Somebody could at least _consider_ what he was trying to show them. Somebody could at least _examine_ his evidence and put two and two together. Somebody could at least _look_ at Danny himself and see it!

And then, there was the last straw. Evidently, the general populace's stupidity went beyond what he thought was possible. It was normal for somebody to look at Danny and be unable to see Phantom. But apparently, it was also very easy to mistake Danny with a cross-dressing, twelve year old girl? Just... how?!

When Wes had walked into school that day, everything had seemed perfectly normal. Regular bullies, regular nerds, regular teachers pretending to be 'hip'... That was until Wes glanced across the busy hallway and spotted Danny Fenton. But it wasn't Danny at all. Danny was taller than this person, and he also had longer hair. His face wasn't nearly as babyish and wait... was that a girl? In Danny's clothes? With Danny's friends, too?

Sam and Tucker were standing next to the fake Danny like normal. Except, both of them were grinning wildly, and it looked like Tucker was sporadically trying to explain something. _They_ clearly knew that the person standing there wasn't Danny, but no one else in the hall had even called the impostor out.

Wes abandoned his destination, and walked in the direction of the trio. Now that he was closer he noticed even more differences and parallels between the girl posing as Danny and the real one. The mimicry was similar, but she was not Danny, by far. Yet somehow, she had his exact same eyes, down to the ethereal flecks of green within his blue irises. She also stood the same way he did, appearing almost unperturbed to gravity.

Within seconds Wes had come to the conclusion that she was also a half-ghost. Nobody else had those weird ectoplasm infused eyes, and held themselves on the ground like it was a difficulty. To Wes's knowledge, that something only Danny and Vlad Masters did, and they were the only ghost hybrids to date. But apparently this girl, whoever she was, was also one. And for some reason she was pretending to be Danny.

Of course, maybe this could be Danny. Maybe he'd gotten hit with some sort of magic spell that changed him into a girl, but Wes doubted it. Even though she had enough similarities for Wes to realize she was half-ghost, she was still a different person, completely. He could see it in her expressions, and subtle unfamiliarity with Sam and Tucker. Not to mention, she didn't show a shred of recognition when Wes presented himself in her face.

"Who are _you_?" he asked.

She fumbled nervously, glanced at Sam and Tucker, and turned back towards Wes. "Uh... Danny? Why?"

Wes looked at her, unimpressed. "No, I mean seriously. I'm not an idiot."

"Are you sure, Wes?" Sam put her hands on her hip. "Because that _is_ Danny. Are you sure you aren't losing it?"

"Oh, stuff it, Manson," Wes deadpanned. "I'm not falling for that crap like everyone else in this school. I want to know why there's some kind of girl ghost wearing Danny's clothes."

The girl choked, panic overwhelming her. She turned back to Sam and Tucker. "I thought you guys said nobody would notice! And how did know about... _you know_. And oh, crap, I just blew it. Danny's secret is probably out too, and like, everyone's gonna know!"

"Danielle!" Sam elbowed her swiftly. "Chill out. It's fine."

"Wes already knows Danny's secret," Tucker explained quickly. "He's told everybody, but people just think he's a nut-job-"

"Hey!" he protested. He was standing right there.

"-so you don't have to worry about anything. I promise that the average student, and teacher, won't even notice that you're not Danny. Wes is just a little more perceptive, so he doesn't count."

Danielle sighed in relief, "Ah, that's good."

"Who are you?" Wes repeated, crossing his arms. Nobody had answered his question yet and he was impatient, regardless of 'Danielle's' mini freak-out.

"There's no need to lie to him because no matter what we tell him, nobody will believe him," Sam pointed out.

"I'm Danny's cousin," she admitted. "I go by Dani, which I know, is confusing."

Wes raised an eyebrow, "If Danny got his powers in an accident, how'd you get yours, then?" he asked.

Dani got really flustered for a moment, before deciding on an answer. "It's complicated."

Wes wasn't satisfied, so he added that question to a list of things to investigate later. There was no point trying to pry it out of her at the current moment. So he moved on. "Why are you pretending to be Danny, anyway?"

"Dani wanted to know what going to school was like, so we're letting her roleplay as Danny for the day," Sam explained. The goth girl's expression darkened. "Don't you dare scheme to screw this up, Weston, or I'll beat you up with a flipping bazooka."

Thankfully, Wes walked away from that encounter without any injuries from Sam, but that didn't prevent him from trying to expose Danielle, though. He had nothing against her, his vendetta was against Danny, and Wes simply attempted to use her to his advantage. However, even though he clearly pointed it out to as many students who would listen to him, nobody took him seriously.

"That – that's not even Danny Fenton! It's a girl in his clothes!"

"Yeah, sure," Dash Baxter rolled his eyes. "Let me guess, she's also a ghost."

"Yes! She actually is! She's Danny's cousin, and she's crossing dressing as him! Are you all freaking blind?!"

Danielle, on the other hand, actually got to experience a day in school for the first time in her life. Roleplaying as Danny was a lot more interesting than she had anticipated and got to meet people she'd only heard about vaguely from Danny. Dash, Paulina, Mr. Lancer... Even though she was enlightened about what a typical school day was like, Dani didn't think school was for her. It was just too... busy. She liked being on her own, exploring nature and flying solo.

Wes didn't help whenever he tried to bring as much attention as possible to her. According to Sam and Tucker, he did that to Danny often. But Sam didn't let him get away with it. After school let out, she sucker punched him, leaving him with a bloody nose. Dani was flattered by the gesture.

Unfortunately, though, even though the trio had been convinced that Wes's ramblings of truth would be harmless, they did instill some damage.

Throughout the day, most people laughed at Wes. _Most_. Only one person actually listened to Wes with startled realization and stayed silent the entire time.

Halfway across the hallway, Valerie Gray recognized Danielle Phantom, in her human form, wearing Danny Fenton's signature outfit and hairstyle. But that didn't make any sense. If Wes was saying that Dani was Danny's cousin, but Dani was also Phantom's cousin, could Wes be right that Danny was Phantom? Holy... It was just the push she had needed to put everything together.

Even though most people couldn't see past the fact that Danny was Dani, one person left school that day with the revelation that there was more to Danny Fenton than there seemed. After all, both of those ghost kids had a _lot_ of explaining to do.

* * *

 **Next episode: Valerie gets the character arc she deserves thanks to Wes and Dani, but I don't have time to write it. I'm sorry. This was very crappy.**


	27. Intertwined

_sequel to "Day Eighteen: Revive"_

Day Thirty: Together

Genre: General

Words: 3280

* * *

In every waking moment since the revival, everything had been different.

He'd woken up in the hospital with almost no recollection of what had happened. Lancer found himself hooked up to an IV and was serenaded by the dull sound of his heart monitor. He didn't remember how he had gotten there. The last thing Lancer recalled was... school. He was at the school, teaching of course, and BAM! He was lying on his back, wearing a gross hospital gown, and he was instantly surrounded by concerned nurses.

But the hospital... looked strange.

It was a regular room, but everything was cast in weird hues of green and blue. Everything else appeared dulled compared to the ethereal colors, and Lancer wondered if they'd put some kind of filter over his eyes. Even the nurses were engulfed in tinted shades of blue and green, and Lancer had been left with the unsettling feeling that he wasn't seeing the world correctly. Not to mention, when one of the nurses dimmed the lights in his room, Lancer observed that the quality of his vision actually increased.

It was odd, and William Lancer didn't like odd. He had so many questions, but he would have to let them wait

After a few minutes, the nurses reassured him that he could go back to sleep, and that he needed to rest. Lancer didn't want to rest, he wanted to know how he had gotten there. But his queries were snuffed out as the hospital staff left his room to tend to other patients. So, his only other choice was to sleep. He didn't know what had happened to him, but Lancer knew that he definitely felt weak.

When he awoke again, his thoughts were much more coherent and less confused. However, he still had no memory of what landed him in the hospital, and the world still looked different. The colors weren't balanced right, and everything was tainted with an eerie atmosphere.

Time passed, and he let the staff run diagnostics on him. Then, eventually, somebody explained that he'd had a brush with death during a ghost attack. Apparently he'd tried to save two of his students, Samantha Manson and Tucker Foley from getting hit by some power-lines, and in the process he'd gone into cardiac arrest. Lancer was shocked to learn that the only reason he was alive was because Danny Phantom had brought him back to life with his ghost powers as a defibrillator.

Lancer didn't know what possessed him to ask, but it felt right when he had said it. He looked to his doctor, Dr. Marshall, seriously.

"How long did my heart stop?"

Dr. Marshall looked startled. "I never said that it did."

"You didn't," Lancer nodded. "But how long was I dead?"

The white-coated man avoided eye contact with Lancer, and rustled through a stack of papers. He set them on the counter behind him and looked back at Lancer with a refreshed passiveness. "Phantom followed you here from the ambulance. He told us that he guessed it was no more than about a minute. But for one minute... you were dead. But what matters, is that you're still here. You're alive."

Sometime later, Lancer elected to mention the odd coloration that he was seeing. How everything was bathed in greens, blues, and faint purples; warmer colors were almost nonexistent. His concern puzzled Dr. Marshall, and he suggested that maybe he had developed some kind of partial color blindness that prevented him from seeing those colors, so his brain altered his perception. He told Lancer that it wasn't a firm diagnosis, and that he specialized more with cardiac conditions rather than optimal, so he shouldn't dwell on his suggestion much.

Needless to say, Lancer wasn't reassured.

Since his injuries were so serious, the hospital had a strict no visitor policy for anyone outside of his family. But, Lancer had no immediate family, so he was left alone. He did, however, receive many cards. He got a card from almost all of his current students, all of his coworkers, and a handful of his previous students. There were three cards that stood out the most. The most obvious two were from the students that he had saved: Sam and Tucker. Both of them wrote lengthy apologetic letters and hopeful wishes that he healed thoroughly. They praised him for his heroism and unlike any of the other cards, these two felt the most genuine.

Then, there was the third card, which honestly shook Lancer to his core every time he read it.

It was a card from Phantom.

Phantom, oddly enough, apologized to him for allowing him to get hurt in the first place. He didn't talk much about how he had saved Lancer, but instead, focused on how he had failed to protect Lancer in the first place. It was inadequate; Phantom was Lancer's savior! He didn't need to apologize, because no matter what that ghost-boy thought, Phantom was _not_ the cause of Lancer's accident. Lancer was the one who had thrown himself in front of those wires, and he owed everything to Phantom for saving his life. Lancer owed him the gratitude, not the other way around!

The ghost's humbleness blew him away, and Lancer reflected pensively that Phantom needed more recognition for what he _did_ do for Amity Park. Even though Phantom hadn't left a return address, Lancer wrote his own letter to Phantom, expressing his appreciation and debt to the ghostly hero. That boy deserved it.

* * *

It was a month and a half before Lancer got out of the hospital. By that point, there was only two weeks left before winter break, so the school let him off the hook until January. Lancer was nearing his mid-fifties and even though he was 'officially' healed, he still had to take it easy. The extra few weeks of vacation were a blessing, but come January, he had to return to work.

When he walked into Casper High, he observed with a sullenness that it too, appeared different. His vision had never gone back to normal since the accident and everything was still cast in those eerie colors. In fact, after a recent incident near his house, Lancer was starting to suspect that his perception of colors wasn't all that had changed. When he got back out into the world, he started seeing Amity's regular ghosts again, but not like he had remembered them. Like his ability to see in the dark, Lancer noticed that ghosts also appeared more enhanced.

He'd been taking a walk down the street, enjoying the fresh air that he'd been deprived of lately. In the hospital, he'd missed the outside, and decided to relish it while he was alive. _(Don't think about that minute, that only leads to scary thoughts.)_ Everything had been normal, or at least, his new version of normal if he considered the color thing. There was a cold breeze, there were people shifting in their warm houses, there were children with gloves playing at the end of their driveways, and there was a dog barking faintly in the distance. Around a street corner, there was a group of teenagers passing around what appeared to be a cigarette box, and Lancer narrowed his eyes suspiciously. He'd have to put a stop to that immediately.

Just when Lancer was about to give the delinquents a piece of his mind, there was a loud roaring noise, followed by downright cackling. The smaller children knowingly hid back inside their houses, and the teenagers down the block scattered. Lancer, who was having trouble running, hid himself behind some trashcans. There was a ghost near, and whatever it was, wasn't good.

A monstrous glowing motorcycle flew down the wintry street while carrying two ghostly passengers. Lancer's eyes were saucers when he saw the two ghosts through his own, weirdly altered vision. To put it simply, it was almost like he had x-ray vision, but it only worked with ghosts. He could see through their skin and see the inner workings of the ghostly energy dispersion along with their different colored auras. Before, he didn't know much about the ghost anatomy, and he hadn't wanted to know, but thanks to this new ability, he had a better idea.

The ghosts had flown away as soon as they had arrived, but the image of their 'energy skeletons' (the most appropriate thing to call it) was still burned into his memory. Shuddering, Lancer cleared his brain and tried not to think about his ability too much, and continued down the hallway to his classroom. Some of the students noticed him in the hallway and welcomed him back, and one Jasmine Fenton had even gone so far to hug him. Nevertheless, despite his many welcomes, he ended back in his usual room by 8 a.m., ready to begin his first class for the day.

Some students were happy to see he was better, while others expressed no concern at all. Lancer didn't let it affect him; teenagers were expected to be apathetic towards the elders, even though their blatant disrespect stung a little.

The day dragged on, uneventfully. However, his last class of the day... changed everything, to say the least.

It was his last Sophomore English class for the day, and he was approached by Sam and Tucker immediately. They hugged him, and thanked him again for everything, and Sam even shed a tear over the welfare of her teacher. She acted so cold and unemotional all the time, but Lancer knew that under her goth exterior, she was truly a caring girl.

After about a minute of awkward gratitude, Sam and Tucker took refuge in the back of the classroom, avoiding stray stares from their classmates. Lancer watched as Sam subtly saved a seat next to her, presumably for her friend, Danny Fenton, which only indicated that the boy was going to be tardy as usual. Lancer went ahead and marked him as late in his role-book, despite the fact that he hadn't taken attendance yet. Some things simply never changed.

He started the lesson that he had already recited twice that day, however, in the first five minutes the classroom door flung open, and in crept Danny. When he spotted the boy walking to the back of the room, Lancer abandoned his speech and trailed off. His mouth was open slightly ajar and his eyes were trained on Danny's form. Many people assumed Lancer was about to snap at the late boy, but instead, Lancer stared at him in mild captivation that almost made him want to throw up.

Where to begin? The blazing green outline of Danny's circulatory system that glowed through his skin, a star-burst wrapping itself around his heart – that he could _see_ visibly pumping. The green aura that wrapped around him, and then greenness that reflected in his eyes like a mirror. Layered on top of his circulatory system was a trail of otherworldly energy that he had seen in the ghosts from the street. Lancer was going to be sick, and that wasn't even the most disturbing part...

Lancer found himself recalling those lenticular Valentines cards; the ones you can turn to reveal two different pictures on top of each other, dependent on how you angle it towards your face. Danny was similarly like that, in a weird way. From different angles, Lancer could see flashes of white hair among black strands, and he could make out a mirage of Danny Phantom's famous symbol over Danny's chest.

He was horrified. It was like... Fenton and Phantom were fused _together_.

"Uh," Danny said, noticing Lancer's weird fixation on him. "Mr. Lancer...?" Lancer snapped out of his trance, and Danny raised a nervous hand to his neck. He could still two people under his skin, he could still see ectoplasmic energy _imbued_ in him. "I know I came in late, and it's the first day back, and I know it's irresponsible and stuff-"

"Just... just sit down," Lancer whispered, numbly.

Danny did so without a protest. Mr. Lancer stuttered intelligibly and continued reading from his lesson plan, but he kept his attention on Danny the entire time.

Was that even the real Danny Fenton? For a moment, Lancer convinced himself that Danny was just _overshadowed_ by Phantom, but that didn't explain why his heart was pumping ectoplasmic energy throughout his body. The Fentons had done a presentation on the dangers of overshadowing, so Lancer knew that overshadowing didn't change the biology of a host's body. So that meant that all that ghostly energy was actually Danny's and that – that...

Was Phantom, Danny? Or was Phantom just hiding inside him because Danny already had some sort of ectoplasmic physiology?

One thing was for sure, the two beings were intertwined together closer than what should've been possible.

* * *

Lancer didn't approach Danny out of fear. That day, he let Danny Fenton and his friends walk out of his class with only the burden of homework and Lancer bit his tongue so hard that he was pretty sure he made it bleed. He wanted an answer, and badly, but he was too hesitant to force it upon his student. Not to mention, it was intimidating since he could see Danny's power surge within him, all the potential within his veins, and the state of his aura. (He didn't know how to interpret auras, though.)

After he got done grading that day's schoolwork, Lancer had convinced himself that he wouldn't receive an explanation from Danny that day. He put his head down on his desk in defeat and wanted to cry in frustration. It was mentally exhausting trying to interpret everything he was able to sense, and he'd already discovered more than he ever wanted to know. The information was torturing him. What _was_ Danny, and who was Phantom? Were they one? A shapeshifter, perhaps? It was a common trope within fiction.

Somewhere in the middle of his breakdown, an intruding voice permeated his thoughts.

"Are you okay?" the voice crackled and echoed. But Lancer _knew_ that voice.

He lifted his head so quickly that he temporarily saw black spots in his peripheral vision. Danny Phantom was sitting on a student's desk, gazing at Lancer with a true expression of concern. He looked more or less the same to Lancer; there was still the criss-cross of his circulatory system and core distribution, and if he tilted his head, he could see black hair and a white shirt mixed in with Phantom. It was uncanny.

"No," Lancer admitted. He didn't know what brought on his honesty. "Everything looks so... different."

"What do you mean?" Phantom asked. "The school? You were only gone two months, I didn't think it changed."

"No," he repeated. All of his exasperation came to the surface, and he blurted it all out. "Since the accident. Things haven't looked the same. Colors and ghosts... it's all weird. It's... _wrong_. And – and you, too, and I don't know what to think about anything."

Phantom was quiet, and his expression grew pained. "This has been going on since the accident? You've been... seeing things?" he sounded guilty. "I'm so sorry. I should've visited you sooner, but after I dropped off your card, the Fentons rigged the hospital with ghost tech and over the holidays I was so busy and – I should've made sure you were okay."

"You think everything is your fault," Lancer said. "Stop."

He looked down, ashamed, "What exactly has been happening with you? You're... seeing things?"

"It's almost like a colorblindness," Lancer explained. It felt weird telling Phantom, or Danny, especially since he didn't know who he was right now. "Everything looks so blue, green, and purple, and all the other colors are so... gray."

Phantom's eyes widened. "That sounds like what I see when I'm a ghost, I mean, since I am a ghost." Lancer noticed his slip-up, processed the information, and ignored it for the moment. He had said 'when I'm a ghost', implying that sometimes he wasn't a ghost.

"The ghosts... I also... I don't know much about cores, but I think I can see them," Lancer said. "And auras, auras too. Just ghost auras, not human, though."

Phantom rested his head on his arm in thought. "From what you're describing... I think you might be a psychic. Somebody who can see the world in terms of ghostly wavelengths. I'm positive that it's from when you... when your heart stopped. I can understand how it can be scary. I was really scared too when I first saw the world like a ghost, it's natural. Well, it's natural to be afraid since it's an unnatural thing."

"That's..." Lancer exhaled, "reassuring. Somewhat, not fully."

"Understandable."

"Because that's not all that I can see," he said slowly.

"What else is there?" Phantom asked.

"I can see the energy in all ghosts, can't I? I can also see," he paused, "I can see where you're bonded together with Danny Fenton. I can see him in you, right now, and earlier I saw you in him. I honestly don't understand."

Phantom froze. His mouth opened a little bit, before shutting again, and he blinked faster than usual. "Uh... uh... damn it," he whispered. "I guess you want an explanation, then?"

"Preferably, so my head doesn't implode. I've been trying to make sense of it for a few hours, and I'm at a loss."

Phantom bit his lip, "So well, I'm the same person and all. I can just change between my two forms, like this." Without a moment's notice, all of Danny's energy brightened dangerously and a white halo formed around his waist, sliding across him and transforming Phantom into Fenton. Now, his student was standing across from him, eyeing him warily. "Was that too much?"

Lancer was certainly in shock, but the better part of him decided to respond, "No. I just... wasn't expecting it. That's all."

Danny continued his explanation and gave Lancer the abridged version of the accident and the decisions that lead to him entering the job of ghost hunting. He painstakingly tried to explain his bad grades and attendance, and Lancer was blown away by the boy's self-disappointment. Danny knew he could do better in everything, but he just didn't have the time or energy because he was doing something more important than school, which was something almost no other student could say.

Firmly, Lancer rummaged through his bag from home and found something he'd pocketed in the front compartment. A letter from the hospital that he'd never sent, addressed to Phantom.

"I'll try to be more lenient now that I know the truth, but I can't be ridiculous. There are other teachers and students who'll notice. So whenever you feel a little down on yourself, stop forcing yourself to believe it's your fault. That goes beyond grades too. Not everything that goes wrong happens because of you, and sometimes you just need a reminder."

Danny took the letter. "Thanks, Mr. Lancer. Y – you're really better than I thought, for helping me out and all, and not telling out."

"Daniel, you saved my life," he said.

"I..." he remembered what Lancer had said about self-blame, and nodded. "I gotta go home now. Jazz is probably wondering where I am, and I don't want her to think that I've gotten kidnapped again or something."

Lancer's mind was horrified by Danny's normalcy with that statement, but he pretended to go along with it. Danny walked out of the door to Lancer's room, and just under his skin, he and Phantom walked together. It was definitely something for Lancer to get used to.


	28. Drowning in Their Possession

Day Thirty-One: Free Day

Genre: Angst/Horror

Words: 6095

 **WARNING: GORY CONTENT AND PROFANITY, AND A LOTTA DEPRESSING THOUGHTS. BE WARY.**

* * *

There were many words to describe Danny's imprisonment. You could find many of them under the article for 'unpleasant' in the thesaurus, but that was probably an understatement. Danny was in hell.

He hadn't seen the light of day in two months, ever since that dreadful day he was captured right outside of FentonWorks because he'd let himself be exposed on social media. He was honestly pathetic for being so naive; he never should've gone home at all. And now he was paying for his stupid mistake, he was truly, a lab-rat. They had no mercy, and he was starting to wonder if he deserved his torture.

 _(Probably.)_

When he had first awoken after his capture, he was floating in complete darkness. His entire body felt sore, and whenever he tried to move, something shocked him. Painfully. It took him time to recall what had happened to him, and when he remembered, he only struggled more, causing him to accidentally fry himself.

Later, he found out that place was called 'the tank'. It was a metal tank used for storing ghosts, lined with a layer of ectoranium. The ghost was suspended within the tank using some sort of ectoplasmic anti-gravity installation. If he even tried to touch any of the walls, he was burned by the ectoranium, so he had to stay completely still if he didn't want to hurt himself. After a while in captivity, Danny began to long for time in the tank again, because it was so much better than what awaited him outside.

Back on the first day, they had probably left him in the tank for about seven or eight hours. It had felt like an eternity, especially since he was still experiencing the shock that he'd actually been captured. They... and everyone... knew his secret. And now he was being taken to who knows where for painful, agonizing experiments. And to think, hours earlier, he'd been stressing out about one of Lancer's tests and a stolen backpack.

None of it felt real. It was just another nightmare, wasn't it? He'd had plenty of bad dreams and meltdowns about this sort of situation. But it was happening. And Danny had no control and his life was over.

No more schoolwork. No more Sam and Tucker. No more overbearing Jazz. No more disappointed parents. No more Lancer. No more bullies. No more ghost fights. No more homework. No more secret trips to the Ghost Zone.

No more freedom.

And very soon, there would be no more Danny Fenton. After all, they didn't use names in a place like this. Wherever he was.

He still wanted to have hope, even though he already knew it was hopeless. His chance of escape was very low, and unless they let him free, he wasn't getting out. How would he?

He also wondered how everyone else was taking it. Had the GIW even told anyone that they'd taken him? Maybe they hadn't, maybe people will just believe that he disappeared. If he really did have no chance of escape, then maybe that was a good thing.

But the GIW was an arrogant organization. Most likely, they'd already announced to all of the news channels that they'd detained him. He was their property now, just another freak to add to their collection of trophies. There was no doubt that he was all over the media at that point. His parents were probably crying over him, wondering how their precious baby boy could turn out to be... so vulgar. They probably saw him as inhuman. The only reason they would want to get him out of the GIW would be so they could experiment on him themselves.

Sam, Tucker, and Jazz were probably blaming themselves. After all, they were the only people who had known Danny's secret, so in their minds', they were the only people who could've protected him. He appreciated his friends, but there was little they could've done to prevent this, since it was mainly his fault to begin with.

The general media was probably painting him out to be some deceitful teenager who was only pretending to be Amity's protector. That way the GIW was portrayed as a 'good' organization in the eyes of the public. Because they would _never_ kidnap a half-human kid and force him to be the subject of experiments, especially if they knew he was a hero.

And yet, there he was, floating in a tank, waiting to be raped by the devil himself. Deep down, Danny believed there was no good way out of this, and his time in the tank only strengthened his negative perception.

Finally, the GIW opened the tank and threw him the floor. His body was numb from being crumpled up and still for so long, so it was difficult to move in the first place. They instantly put a shock collar on him, and commanded him to stand. When he didn't comply, they activated the shock collar, which felt just as bad as the ectoranium. Except the collar actually made his skin secrete ectoplasm, hardly destabilizing him. Finally, he managed to pull himself to his feet, and they pushed him forward with their guns.

His sensory input was slipping into overload when they pushed him down a pristine white hallway with deadlocked metal doors every twenty feet. There was the lingering scent of ectoplasm and Danny almost wanted to fall over and throw up because he knew where that smell had come from. But he managed to keep his wobbly legs moving so they wouldn't shock him. They turned a corner, and the agents brought him to a bare, cement room with only a metal framed bed and a thin mattress.

"This is where you'll be kept," a nameless agent said. He didn't speak to Danny, but rather at him. "You'll be collected in the morning."

They evacuated the room before Danny could even process their exit. The metal door slammed shut, and he heard about ten locks slide into place. Then, there was a quiet whirring sound and Danny observed a ghost shield appearing a few millimeters off of the walls. Hesitantly, Danny brought his hand to the shield, and he was shocked again, just as he'd expected. In the few hours that they had discovered his status as a half-ghost, they had modified a ghost shield to be strong enough to harm his human form. Looking back, it was probably why they had kept him detained in the tank for so long.

Just to see what his options were, Danny found out that he could turn into Phantom with the collar on, but he wasn't able to use any of his powers. Dejectedly, he reverted back into Fenton because it took less energy. With no other choice, Danny fell back against his uncomfortable bed, curled up into a ball, and wept for the loss of his freedom.

The next week was just as hopeless as the previous day. Maybe even more so, because Danny really got to see how difficult escape would be. At first, they just brought him to a tech lab to do a bunch of scans of his body. It was extremely uncomfortable and Danny hated how everybody was constantly looking at him, and how he had been reduced to an obedient specimen just after one day. But whenever he didn't do what they said, they would shock him, and turn up the pain scale until he complied. They were easily able to demand him to change forms, and by the second day, he did so without a thought.

He wanted nothing more than to fight back, but Danny knew he had to conserve his energy until he knew that he had a probable chance of success. That meant he had to avoid getting shocked, because it took a _lot_ out of him every time they did. However, if it came to something truly invasive and tortuous, he'd fight back in an instant. Scans weren't preferable, but he could tolerate them when opposed to grisly experiments and drugs.

But Danny knew that eventually, they'd make him suffer through those things. He just had to find an opening to get out before it happened.

Somewhere around the fourth day, the director of the GIW came in to see Danny. Danny was strapped to a chair and they were currently running hand-held sensors over his body. Danny had learned if he even tried to speak, they would turn on the shock collar. He'd kept quiet after that.

He wasn't their dog, he was just pretending to do what they said, so he had a better opportunity to get free. He had to keep reminding himself of that.

Director Blanchard reached out with a white glove and grabbed Danny's face, forcing Danny to look him directly in the eyes. He was currently in ghost form and wiggled uncomfortably until the man stopped touching his face.

"Change back," Blanchard spat at him. Danny didn't hesitate and transformed into Danny Fenton. He was plagued with more fatigue and exhaustion in his human form, and had to take much deeper breaths. They hadn't fed him or given him water since he arrived, and he hadn't been able to sleep much due to insomnia.

Blanchard frowned at Danny, and turned towards a researcher. "Why is he still wearing those... civilian clothes?" he gestured, distastefully. "Put him in something more... uniform, plain. Less personal." He thought a moment. "But make it white, after all, he's ours now."

A few people left, probably to find something that met the director's demands.

Blanchard examined Danny some more. "He looks so weak. You've just done scans, so far, haven't you? Why's he in such bad condition."

"I don't know," a researcher shrugged. "Mental stress?"

Danny couldn't help but roll his eyes and blurt out an accusatory comment. "Yeah, it's not like you've taken me from my life and turned me into your lab-rat, torturing me and stealing my freedom."

The researcher habitually reached for the trigger for the shock collar, but Blanchard made him stop. "And so it speaks," he said.

Realizing that he was going to be shocked, Danny bit back a reply, "I'm not an _it_."

"But you basically are. You're just a mass of impossible biology that's unfortunately sentient. All you are is precious scientific data ready to be discovered, an anomaly, but also our greatest hope at understanding more about the nature of ghosts," Blanchard grinned. "You're a resource; how you feel means nothing to us, because your mind is worthless. We only care about your body, so we're going to treat you how we please."

Danny narrowed his eyes in anger, "Fucking bastard."

The researcher hit the button, and his collar erupted with pain, causing him to involuntarily cringe. The electricity was calibrated to his ectosignature, and it caused his skin to lightly bubble ectoplasm until the collar ceased. Danny gasped in misery, as his lungs burned with an itchy fire. Okay, maybe that last comment hadn't been worth it.

"Anyway," Blanchard continued, "tell me more about it's condition. It's worsened since it got here two days ago?"

"Yes, it's definitely much weaker. Like I said, it's probably just mental-"

"Hmm," Blanchard said, "I don't think so." He turned to Danny. "Do you know why you're so weak right now?"

Danny glared at him, his voice was raspy. "Haven't eaten in days. No water either. Dehydrated."

The researcher scoffed, "You don't need _food_ , you're a ghost! "

"Half-ghost," Danny countered. "I thought you guy's already knew that's why I'm so 'special'. I'm still alive, so I still need to eat."

"Yes, but shouldn't ectoplasm be enough to sustain you?"

"Well, maybe if I was a normal ghost, but no. I need to eat to live."

After that, he started getting food and water once a day. But it was only scraps from the GIW cafeteria, which was only slightly better than Casper High's menu. Edible, but absolutely disgusting. They also made him wear a white prisoner's jumpsuit with gray socks. They didn't give him any shoes. He eventually threw the socks across his room after they started smelling rancid because of his sweat. The rest of his clothes didn't smell any better.

The scans only lasted a few more days. At the end of his first week, the researchers were ready to move on to more... interactive experiments.

The first day on the table was his worst nightmare, until he had to do it again and again and then his 'worst' nightmare became his living nightmare. They wanted to see how much he could be injured before he destabilized so they could determine his limits before they started doing real experiments. They would cut him with scalpels all over and then watch his body heal and take notes on it while Danny was left bleeding all over the place, in pain. The days when they only tortured his human half were the worst; Phantom was able to take more injuries because in that form his healing factor was faster. Fenton... on the other hand, felt everything much more vividly and took even _longer_ to heal. Not to mention that blood was thinner than ectoplasm so he had a higher blood loss on those days.

Everything hurt so much. He was beginning to see no way out.

 _(Should I just give up? Let them kill me...?)_

No, he wouldn't go that route. He'd only been in this hell for two weeks. He wasn't going to give up so early. He _would_ get out, eventually.

 _(That's a lie.)_

Half-way through his second week, his depressed thoughts were eased when instead of being taken to the lab, he was brought to a new room with a metal chair and a window into another room. The chair was facing the window, and they pushed him into it. They strapped him thoroughly to the chair and Danny's heart started beating faster because this was different than usual and in here, different was never good.

One of the agents coughed, before glancing at him impartially. "You have ten minutes." The agent left the room, and Danny's eyes widened with horror.

"F – for what?" he called out, confused.

On the other side of a window, a door opened. His eyes were deceiving him, that couldn't...

His family.

There were there, only one room away from him, looking at him through the window. Danny didn't know how to react, honestly. Why were they here, was he going home? No, he couldn't be. The agent had told him that he only had ten minutes to speak to them. This was some sort of... visitation, not a release from his imprisonment.

Jazz was wearing a brown sweater he'd gotten her for her last birthday. Her eyes were welled up with tears, and she pressed her hand against the glass, morosely. His parents were in their usual jumpsuits, but both of them looked... dulled. Like all of the life had been drained out of them, and they acted like it too.

All he could do is gape back at them as they looked at him through the glass. He didn't know what to say. Last time he'd seen his parents was the morning he'd left before school, only for him to be exposed and captured. And here he was, face to face with them, and judging by their presence, they didn't completely hate him for what he was. He assumed Jazz had already told them everything that he'd kept from them, and they were here with her visiting him.

But Danny was still too scared to say something. This was cruel – putting his family just out of reach, reminding him that there were still miles between him and his freedom.

"Danny," Maddie said. Her eyes reflected her sadness. "What have they done to you?"

What could he say? That he'd been sliced up the past few days, so that the GIW could get a grasp on how far they could go before he melted into goo? That he'd been shocked every time he breathed wrong or failed to follow orders? That he'd been treated like the inhuman creature that he was?

"How're you... here?" he asked, instead.

"Vlad," Jazz explained softly, "he found some legal clause that let us come see you. But after this, we can't come see you for a while. At least," she choked, "six months."

The thought of spending another week in here broke Danny, he couldn't imagine another six months of this.

"We're going to get you out of this, son," Jack said. "We're doing everything we can. We... the media's on our side. But legally... you're in their custody."

Danny couldn't help but find himself surprised. His Dad seemed genuine, and that confirmed his guess that his parents didn't actually despise him. Which only made him feel more guilty that he was putting them through such emotional turmoil. They shouldn't have to be bailing their stupid ghost son out of government ghost prison.

"I'm sorry," Danny said, looking Jazz in the eyes instead of his parents. She was easier to face. "I'm sorry everything ended up like this. If I... wasn't like this, things would be okay. But instead, I... I messed up."

"It's not your fault!" Jazz exploded. A tear rolled down her cheek, "Don't you _dare_ blame this on yourself, Danny. Nobody deserves this treatment, so don't you dare try to apologize for something you can't help."

"Your sister's right," Maddie said. "We... this is so hard, Danny. But we don't hate you – we just feel ashamed for putting you in a position where you felt like you couldn't tell us. We made you feel unsafe, and maybe if we hadn't, we could've prepared for this together, or at least prevented it. What you are doesn't bother me Danny, it's the monsters that are doing this to you that are making me feel this way."

The confirmation that she didn't hate what he was rekindled some of his lost hope. "I... _thank you_. I needed to hear that, you don't know... in here it's so... Everything they do hurts. I just want out, so badly."

"After this is all over, we're suing," Maddie demanded. "They think they can objectify you, but they're wrong. Even when we leave Danny, you have to know that we support you."

Jazz wiped at her tears, "Stay strong. We love you so much."

"Sam and Tucker and Vladdie are working on getting you out. Sam and Tucker are rallying the kids are your school, and Vladdie is using as much as his mayoral power as possible to get you out. He's a true friend."

Danny didn't know what to say to that. Vlad wasn't _his_ friend, or his Dad's... so that meant that Vlad was doing it out of the goodness of his heart? Or maybe he was making sure that the GIW couldn't legally detain half-ghosts, for his own protection in the future. Vlad was selfish, but there was also the chance that he really was doing this for Danny.

"Don't give up, Danny. This isn't the end of our family, we promise."

"We're going to make them pay for what they're doing to you. In time. Heartless sons of bitches."

"You don't deserve this. Being a ghost doesn't mean that your rights are less than ours, so whatever they tell you, don't believe them."

" _We love you._ "

The ten minutes were over. On of the fucking agents came in and took his family away from him. Another one came in on his side of the room and loosened his straps. He didn't move from his chair, and stared brokenly at the window his family had been at. He hadn't stood up quickly enough, so he was shocked by his collar.

He returned to his hours of lying on his back, suffering through laceration after laceration of flesh. Eventually, they got bored of doing that too, after a few days. They changed his routine again, and they started prodding him with needles so they could examine his reactions to different substances and chemicals. A lot of them made him feel nauseous, while others altered his body temperature, and some temporarily changed the color of his skin. They liked taking samples of his blood, and occasionally, they would cut off squares of skin so they could examine his skin and muscle tissues.

It was a different kind of pain than the slices, but it was still pain, nonetheless.

His family's encouragement was a good supplement of hope, but in the end it made everything more bittersweet. It felt like he was put in an emotion microwave and just left there. The fact that they had given him hope made it only more painful when he was deprived of it. Like giving a reformed addict cocaine, and then taking it away; the withdrawal effects were deadly.

In Danny's third week of unimaginable agony, the GIW changed it up again and decided to give him a chemical bath. Nobody really bothered explaining the purpose of it to him, but from what he could guess, they were trying to do something with his powers. They led him into the lab, demanded he change into Phantom, and made him take off all of his clothes, leaving him naked and exposed for everyone to see, instantly increasing his never ending anxiety. They even took off his shock collar, which was a momentary relief, before they poked guns into his bare skin and forced him inside a weird looking pod.

Inside the pod, he wasn't able to see anything on the outside. He knew they could see him though, because he noticed there was a minuscule red light that indicated a camera inside the cramped area. There was the sound of something sliding, and liquid running – like a faucet, and then a foul smelling, red liquid started rising around his bare feet. It caressed his skin, and he could feel the clumpy texture of the substance as it crawled up his body, filling up the pod. Soon, it was up to his neck and he realized that they weren't going to stop filling it up until the entire pod was full. He wasn't going to be able to breathe. They were going to drown him in the chemical.

A different sense of fear filled him. Usually he was just afraid for the pain, but the GIW knew when to stop. This 'bath' could literally kill him if he drowned.

He could die.

"S – stop!" he cried, keeping his head as close to the ceiling as possible. The pod was about the same height as him so it wasn't very easy.

The chemical was still rising, and he was given no choice. He would have to hold his breath. Moments before the crimson liquid reached his mouth, he inhaled a deep breath and held it. He closed his eyes too, this stuff would probably burn if it got in his eyes. It was already burning in other unmentionable places.

Soon enough, his lungs weakened with the burden of holding in oxygen. His lips begged to let go of the tension so he could exhale, but he knew if he did that he'd have to swallow the chemical. But Danny couldn't last forever in the battle against the limitation of his lungs; no one could. Finally, Danny's body surrendered and he let out the last of the air he was holding in. He breathed in the chemical, and it immediately gagged him.

It tasted toxic. There were a million words Danny could use to describe the awful feeling of the substance crawling in his throat and mouth, but none of them were appropriate. Because there was no word for how this felt.

As someone who could turn intangible, Danny hadn't had to experience the fear of drowning in a long time. But now, he was experiencing it and that forgotten fear evolved into a panic attack. The more he panicked, the less he had control over his breathing, which caused him to choke faster. The chemical was making him aware of places in his throat that he hadn't known were there. It wasn't even fire; it was lava. Pure, boiling lava that was melting him from the inside out.

With his eyes scrunched closed, he didn't experience the fade to black, but he eventually passed out from the lack of oxygen. He woke up later that day in his room, on his bed, in human form and wearing his regular uniform.

He just started crying. He couldn't help it. He was weak, so he cried. It was something he felt like doing, and even though it was shameful, he didn't feel undignified. They had drowned him in some ghostly chemical and he'd passed out. So, could anyone blame him for crying?

They acted like it never happened. They had collected the data they needed from the experiment in the pod, so they moved on. They went back to the needles and observations, and occasionally revisited the injury tests. Or maybe they just wanted to hurt him for fun. After all, he was practically nothing to them, so they wouldn't be below doing that.

Near the end of the fourth week, he lost it. He couldn't stand being a lab-rat anymore, he couldn't stand the constant, never ending hell that he was in any longer. He was irrational. Hopeless.

He fought back against some of the agents. He transformed and grabbed one of their guns. He got around a corner, and tried to pry his collar off with a spare set of keys he'd stolen from one of the agents. It wasn't working. They keys weren't enough to break the clasp on the collar. _Damn._

And, then, he was on the floor. The shock of the collar was ten times what he was accustomed to. It was almost close to destabilizing him, it was that hard of a shock. His fingers dripped away and so did parts of his legs and he was turning to goop and he was also on fire and – and. Too much screaming inside his head, but not in his throat.

They dragged him back into his room, and that night, the experiments were more painful than usual.

He was forced to endure the next two weeks without a single protest. They had gotten used to his obedient behavior until his pathetic escape attempt. Suddenly, they were back on edge again, and reminded how dangerous Danny could possibly be.

Danny wondered if his drastic flip-out is what initiated them to go forth with their most heinous experimental procedure yet. They wanted to vivisect him.

It wasn't a sudden thing. They physically and mentally prepared him for the vivisection a few days before it actually happened. They told him what they planned on doing, and that they'd play around in his guts, take a few samples, stitch him up and wait for him to heal. Of course, he was terrified out of his mind. They were going to play surgery with him, but it wasn't surgery... it was so much sicker than that. It was sick. He was sick thinking about it.

At least, since he'd been well behaved since his escape attempt, they were being merciful enough to knock him out during the actual vivisection. That meant that going under would be the scariest part, and hopefully he wouldn't wake up dead or in multiple pieces. He'd just have to experience all the pain afterwards, but at least he wouldn't be conscious or anything. That was the stuff of horror stories.

The day came, and they brought him in. They made him change into Phantom and strip again, but at least this time he got to keep his underwear. That was at least less humiliating and revealing. They put him on the metal table, and made him spread his arms out, reminding him of those fetal pigs they had to dissect in biology. ( _Don't think about it too much, please don't think don't_ don't _._ )

They held up a syringe with a dull drug that was going to keep him under long enough for them to do what they wanted to do to him, and it would also keep him in ghost form after he passed out. He couldn't stop them, even if he tried, so he just let it happen. At least after the vivisection he would get a break from the usual experiments so he could recuperate fully. That was at least a good thing, right?

Nothing about any of this was good, or ethical, but he was theirs. He had to let them do this to him, no matter how scared he was. No matter how much he hated it. That was his role as the lab-rat.

The needle went in his vein, and everything started getting sleepy. He knew that when he would wake up, everything would hurt, so he braced himself for that. His eyelids drooped and he heard the clatter of a scalpel, but he couldn't bring himself to care...

The pain when he woke up was excruciating. He was utterly, sore inside his chest and stomach and breathing was a labor. He was surprised to observe that instead of his normal room, he was in some sort of medical area. There was an IV tube in his arm, and he was happy to let himself be filled with morphine. He needed it, _badly_. When he looked down, his entire chest was bandaged, and he could see traces of red and green blood soaking through the bandages. He was also still Phantom, which meant that whatever he transformed, everything would hurt _more_. That was definitely something to look forward to, which was why he was going to stay a ghost as long as they allowed him to.

He hadn't expected such... courteous care post-vivisection, but he supposed the GIW wanted him to feel better so they could get back to ripping him apart while he was in peak condition.

He spent a week recuperating. He managed to turn back to human, which did hurt more than being a ghost, but it was a necessary step in his healing process. Unavoidable hurdle. After he didn't need the drugs anymore, most of the time he was in his own room, so he just laid in his bed, staring at the plain ceiling. At that point, he started to wonder what Sam and Tucker were doing with him gone. His Dad had said they were rallying the teenagers, but what else were they doing in their spare time? Were they going to movies on the weekends? Were they keeping up with their homework? He didn't want them to stop doing things just because he got captured. That wasn't right. They deserved to have their own lives.

He thought about lots of things, and lots of people too. He even missed some of the ghosts. He knew that they didn't care less about him, though. He was just another GIW casualty, a failure to them.

His recuperation period was scheduled to end soon, and it depressed him. He couldn't go back to that daily hell of being stabbed and scrapped and cut and melted. But it was inevitable, because he was theirs.

One day before he was scheduled to return to the lab regularly, they collected him from his room. Instantly, he began to panic. Apparently they were starting early. He wasn't ready for this, he had told himself for five days that he wouldn't have to go back to the lab until tomorrow, but they suddenly changed it on him. They _never_ deviated from schedule unless there was a really bad reason. Anxiety held him by the shoulders and made him nearly trip down the hallway.

He walked to the usual lab, and was taken aback when the guard shook his head. He wasn't going to the usual place today. They were taking him somewhere different. That was also bad.

They led him down a part of the hallway that he'd never been in before. And then... they brought him to an elevator? He fidgeted nervously, unable to foresee what new torture they were going to introduce him to today. The elevator brought them from the lowest sub-levels of the facility to the ground floor. What-?

Danny gulped. He knew better than to ask any questions at this point. They'd electrocute him in an instant.

The elevator doors slid open and he was carelessly pushed forward again. It was... bright, wherever he was. No. Was that a _window_? That was sunlight? He hadn't seen sunlight in two months. Why had they brought him up here?

"-a shame," he heard someone mutter. "Unfortunate loss of opportunity."

This had to be another one of his optimistic dreams. He was back asleep, ten floors below. This wasn't real.

The agent led him forward, and he followed with rapidly growing curiosity. ( _Don't get your hopes up, this could just be another experiment. You could just be meeting with Blanchard or something._ ) The further he wandered through the first floor, he realized that he was actually in the lobby. There were waiting areas, and there were various agents lingering around, holding cups of coffee and chatting normally.

He couldn't stand the heavy, mysterious tension anymore. "Why am I up here?" he asked the agent.

For the first time he could remember, the agent actually replied instead of just shocking him. The tall man gave a disgusted look and grumbled, "It's your free day. We don't own you anymore."

That hit him like a bus out of nowhere. It was... over? Actually, for real, over? He was going home? After so long, after so much pain and irreversible mental and physical scarring? It had to be some kind of cruel joke. But... here he was. He could see the sunlight in the windows, meaning he had left his underground prison behind.

Free. Well, almost.

It was unbelievable. Relieving. Daunting, even. For now, he could live without being studied by the government, but so much more awaited his new life.

"Danny?" he turned to the side. There was his family again, and rather than appearing sad like they had in the window, they were welcoming. They were relieved, just like him. Jazz was crying again, but this time it was tears of joy. He wanted to run over to them, but until he got his collar removed, he had to yield to the agent next to him.

The agent took his time in angrily walking over to the Fentons. He was clearly pissed off that they were losing Danny as a specimen. Finally, there were standing next to his parents and sister and before the agent could protest, all members of his family crushed him in a group hug. Thankfully, he'd mainly recovered from the vivisection injuries, but he was still pretty sore from that experience. He could've stayed in their grip for all eternity at that point, he was so happy.

"I missed you so, so much," Jazz said, running her hand through his hair. She didn't even care that it was greasy from his lack of showering.

The agent loudly coughed, and Danny remembered that he still needed to take off the collar. He was more than willing to let that happen. The agent took out some kind of magnetic key, and it effortlessly unlocked the collar. It fell off of Danny's neck, and clattered to the white tiled floor. At that moment, he was tempted, and Danny wondered if it would be illegal to destroy his fallen collar. Probably, since everyone in the vicinity would probably shoot him instantly.

Now, he was actually free.

By the time they walked out of that God-forsaken fucking facility, they were all bawling their eyes out. Jack was the worst, even though he claimed to never cry. Everyone was glad to have Danny back, and Danny was grateful that his nightmare was over. His physical anguish was in the past.

Nothing felt real. What was his new reality? What was his new life? It wasn't the same as the last one.

Danny ended up laying his head on Jazz's lap in the backseat of the car. He was still wearing his GIW uniform, and couldn't wait to get back home to take it off immediately and take a hot shower.

He was finally free after so what felt like so long. It was his first free day.

* * *

 **Aaaannd that's a wrap! I can't believe I actually managed to complete all 31 themes, albeit 2 days late. But with finals considered and all that school shit, I feel like this is an achievement. I had so much fun writing all of these and I feel like this has really helped me practice my writing. Anyway, thank you for reading and thank you everyone for the positive reviews! You guys are great!**


End file.
